Customer Reviews

Sharon Tate: Collector's Edition

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What makes a good biography? The standard answer might be that a well-researched and unbiased account is best. Let the facts speak for themselves and don't interfere. After all, history should be dry and staunchly academic, right? In "Sharon Tate", Andrew Yorke does something a bit different.

The best history professors I ever had balanced dates and facts with an engaging narrative of the events and the people involved. The introduction and appendix included in the Collector's Edition (the "Overture" and "Coda", analogous to a musical piece) make this book something similar. While much of the biographical information in those two sections can be found in one place or another on line, it is laid out here as the perfect complement to the story. Not to mention, the "Overture" alone is written better than anything I've found about Sharon Tate!

The story itself is fourteen chapters that each present a moment of Sharon's life. Taken alone, they are wonderful short stories. At times, one gets the sense that the story could be about anyone, but that is part of the brilliance of Yorke's presentation. The reader gets a greater sense of who Sharon Tate is by sharing her experiences. He presents Sharon's life in such a way so that the reader can connect with her. Reading the book from beginning to end, one is left with an unencumbered sense of who she was.

Yorke's writing style can be abstract at times. "Friends" reads like a dream. "Dreams" introduces us to her world through the perspective of Sharon as an infant. "Echoes" is a touching illustration from a most unexpected and innocent perspective. Indeed, these chapters demonstrate a gift for characters such that I would like to see a novel - or even another short story - from Andrew Yorke. While the remaining chapters are not as abstract, they transition fluidly, and the writing style does retain some cohesion.

I gave the regular edition Sharon Tate (sans "Overture" and "Coda") as a gift to several friends and family members when it was free on Valentine's Day. While it is good on its own, I do recommend the Collector's Edition. The "Coda" is organized according to each chapter, and it provides valuable context that makes Yorke's narrative, I think, more engaging. The story is suitable for readers of all ages. My father, who is in his mid-sixties, has read it multiple times. I am also reading one chapter at a time to my two-year-old at bedtime.