Customer Reviews

In Spite of Myself: A Memoir

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Since the only review of this book, so far, is by someone who HASN'T read it, I thought I'd take the opportunity of voicing an opinion of one who has! My first thought upon starting the book was: At 600 plus pages, this would seem to be less a "memoir" and more a full-scale autobiography. But, memoir it is as Mr Plummer seems to be recounting his life not is strict chronological order, but as memories assail him while writing. One can almost hear his thinking: "Oh, I'd forgotten that! Well, it's just too good not to tell! I'll get back to the main "plot" in a minute!" The stories are amazingly entertaining (As one who, as a youth saw the "Ian Keith/Broadway Television Theater" moment I was thrilled to discover I hadn't just imagined the whole thing!). The history of the theater, and its decline (and triumphs) over the last half century, heartening and heart-breaking. The portrait of stars and lesser luminaries of, at least, the past four generations is enthralling. As to the writing: suffice to say Mr Plummer is almost as good a writer as he is an actor (he couldn't be AS good... he'd be Shakespeare!) If you love theater, read this! If you don't, read this and you will!

I eagerly awaited the release of this book. I have been a lifelong fan of Mr. Plummer's and I have been looking forward to reading his self-penned memoir for several years. The night of it's release, I literally stayed up a good portion of the night reading it...long into the early morning hours. I finished it the next night. It was a pretty captivating book, I must say. Overall I cannot give it five stars as I strongly felt the language and explicit sexual descriptions (a few of them actually) were too graphic and the language in my opinion, was unnecessary. I figured he was using it for effect but it really seemed like it could have been toned down. Call me a prude but that's how I feel. I do think that it isa nicely written memoir. I felt, that after seeing him on stage and on screen for so many years, I really walked away knowing him a little better. Throughtout the book, he was self-deprecating, honest and frank about his triumphs and his failures as a performer and as a person.

I was left with a few questions though. What happened to his second wife Trish? After surviving a near fatal car accident, which led to a raging alcohol problem, I got the distinct feeling that after their divorce, she succombed to her alcoholism and passed away. He never cleared up what happened to her. It left a lot of loose ends...whether or not this was intentional, I will never know but I would like to.

I also got the feeling that he has never gotten over the breakup of his marriage to Tammy Grimes. He seemed to leave the reader feeling like his heart had been broken, to his own fault in many ways as he was very much into his partying days then, but still. I would have liked more stories of him and Tammy together. They seemed like, had they been a little older, maybe it would have worked out. Who knows? I know he is crazy about his third wife Elaine and I'm glad he's found true happiness and love with her. I just got the vibe that he never got over Tammy..

I was surprised at how much he seemed to enjoy being a father initially, to baby Amanda "Manders", although by his own admission, he wasn't around very much to really call himself a father. It's interesting that he did the exact same thing to his daughter that his own father did to him and I found that sad. I'm glad he and Amanda have reconciled and are now close. I feel bad that he missed out on all of her growing up years and I get the sense, from his writing, that is one of his biggest regrets as well.

Overall, I found it a very charming and honest memoir. I loved the chapter on The Sound of Music and it seemed like he and Julie have a great fondness for each other, which is so obvious anytime they are around each other, both on and off the screen.

I hope to make it to one of his book signings. It's an excellent read, just be warned there is a lot of bad language and blantant sexual encouters, for those prudes like myself. Bravo on a great job writing this book, Mr Plummer! I wish you'd write more and I wish you'd release a CD of your amazing gifts as a concert pianist. You are truly gifted. God bless you sir!

Mr. Plummer is a splendid writer who takes pains to reveal himself candidly and honestly, warts and all. For anyone interested in theatre in the last half of the 20th century, this is required reading. Though admirably frank about his own failings and failures, he retains a gentleman's charity when discussing others. About his various liaisons, he remains fairly discreet throughout. There is much to learn and even more to enjoy in this absorbing and beautifully written book.

The true odyssey of the development of a great theatre artist recounting a life in the arts of nearly 80 years. Honest about his appraisal of himself, kind to his colleagues, and indispensible if you would know what the world of theatre is really like. Fascinating and revealing. Every actor, would be actor, and theatre lover should read it.

If you're a Christopher Plummer fan, then this is the book for you. Obviously. There's very little that Christopher Plummer did that isn't documented here (although it doesn't come up to date other than generally). With such a long and distinguished career it's hardly surprising that despite the length of it, this autobiography seems a little cramped and rushed. What surprised this reader, though is how much of what we English call a "luvvie" Plummer is. I'd expected a much more serious tone. Everyone has a nickname (I lost track of who were family friends and who were dogs at one point) and everyone with whom Plummer has ever acted (or so it seems) gets a name-check. One bemoans the lack of an index, but it would probably end up half as long as the book itself! All in all, an enjoyable read, certainly a cut above the usual theatrical memoir.

To have been a fly on the wall in the exciting and privileged life of the actor Christopher Plummer is to reach into a world of advantaged living very few of us are allowed access to....Plummer admits his many problems...drinking, womanizing, underwhelming husband and father...yet the excellent writing of this talented performer acqaints us with the exotic lifestyles in the real celebrity world of the recent past....Loved this book!

thoroughly engaging read from a thoroughly engaging canadian actor;and a very fine one at that. mr. plummer has been truly entertaining worldwide audiences for such a long time now. he is much loved in this country and we are all so proud of him, every time he appears on stage and in the theater. his story is delightfully witty and wise; thoroughly enjoying it.

What a writer he is. You really live the periods he writes about. You share is views and life style. What you thought was going on from 1940 in the theater and film is not what was going on. What an amazing period of time he lived in. A perfectly candid story of his life. You will be hard put to stop reading this book.

I read Christopher Plummer's interview in Cineaste and was intrigued by his brief recollection of his film career. So I picked up Plummer's autobiography, In Spite of Myself.

I have to admit I did read most of the book. But I hated myself for being so entertained by Plummer's impression of the great bad boy actors of the past, like John Barrymore (who Plummer plays in a one-man show), Errol Flynn, and his close friend Jason Robards.

Plummer is quite the "luvvie" in his writing style, mixing French into his English sentences when he wants to be naughty and insult (or sometimes compliment) someone. I doubt anyone else has ever called George Schultz (Ronald Reagan's secretary of state) "flirty and amusing."

I could have done without the racist remark in the middle of a story where he wants us to believe he believes his house was haunted by a dead child: "However we said nothing--we did not want to lose our Mexican help who were superstitious at the best of times." Who's the one who says he believes in ghosts? Then a cop supposedly connected him with a psychic who told the dead little girl to leave, that Plummer and his wife were not her parents. It sounds like the movie Poltergeist. He tells another story that left a bad impression about Cameroonian royal guards who used the floor instead of the toilets in a hotel suite. I suppose it might have happened.

Plummer either kept a meticulous diary or has a near-perfect memory, because he seems to recall every play and film he was ever in. Unfortunately, he often doesn't give the date, so while you can figure out the decade from the piece of work (if it's The Sound of Music, this must be the sixties), you don't know when exactly some events take place.

Plummer's autobiography is a connection to great actors of the past, like Raymond Massey, Lawrence Olivier and Judith Evans. It was interesting to read about Plummer's work in live TV and to learn more about the dramatic work of actors I remember from the 1960s like Joseph Wiseman, Madeleine Sherwood (Mother Superior in Sally Fields' TV show The Flying Nun), and comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara.

Plummer admires the old movie moguls like David O. Selznick and Samuel Bronston. (Bronston's would-be epic The Fall of the Roman Empire, with Plummer as the emperor Commodus, was such a financial flop it was the last of the sword and sandal pictures until Gladiator, which concerned the same historical period.)

There are a lot of photographs, some of which (like that of Plummer's fellow Canadian William Shatner) are almost impossible to recognize because they were taken when these famous actors were so young.

I don't know if was the length of the book (648 pp.) or cheapness that kept them from providing one, but the publishers should have paid for an index. A one hundred-page book about Disney's latest teen idol doesn't require an index, but a thirty-dollar, six-hundred page history of theater and film that covers half a century should have one.

Plummer, along with almost everyone he writes about, is drunk most of the time (which makes it even more remarkable he can recall so much), but he wants us to indulge him. He insists his divorces were his fault, but he tells us just enough of his wives' problems so we don't judge him too harshly.

However, the intelligent, personal style of writing that appealed to me when I read his interview in Cineaste is there in his book, and the anecdotes are short and usually centered on the person Plummer is describing.

The book is sometimes infuriating, but often fun, to read, in spite of Christopher Plummer himself.

Having been a life-long Christopher Plummer fan I bought and read this memoir eagerly. As far as I know there was no ghost writer, so that he produced a decently written book is commendable. It would have been nice if his editor had noticed and corrected a few of his tics, such as several times describing various men as "camp as a row of tents" and of characterizing people as combinations of other people, some of whom I have never heard of.

What I found disturbing was a distinct callousness in the way Mr. Plummer chose to share so many of the stories of his life. Of his daughter Amanda he tells us he was a lousy husband and an even lousier father. As far as the reader can tell, he has barely laid eyes on her execpt on stage and in films. That he failed at fatherhood is sad and something that strangers should not judge, but his description of the way he played (or didn't play) his role as father comes across as utterly cavalier. Likewise, he talks a fair amount about his second wife (in fact he talks about her a great deal more than he talks about his daughter), leaving the reader with the distinct impression that in the aftermath of a horrific car accident and an ever-escalating drinking problem, she was likely to meet a bad end. He never closes that loop with the reader; I wonder whether he himself bothered to ascertain her fate.

I came away thinking that Mr. Plummer's greatest gift is luck. It is hard to know why he has succeeded where so many other talented and handsome men have failed. It is hard to know why some of his friends paid the price for the same kind of hard living in which he himself engaged, while he apparently has escaped scot-free. It is hard to understand how his liver still functions. "In Spite of Myself" left me with more questions than answers, as well as the distinct sense that if one were to ask those questions, the response would be a blank stare.