A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father, Jack Lemmon [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Chris Lemmon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2006

First time in paperback, a very personal portrait of an actor audiences loved, written by his actor son. Jack Lemmon (1925-2001) was one of our most beloved movie stars, a two-time Academy Award winner for Mister Roberts and Save the Tiger. In A Twist of Lemmon, Chris Lemmon shares family tales, intimate father-son conversations, and anecdotes from and about his dad. Joining Chris are first-person tributes from Blake Edwards, Andy Garcia, Julie Andrews, Tony Curtis, Neil Simon, Shirley MacLaine, and Cliff Robertson, among others.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Author Lemmon's parents divorced when he was three, and each remarried, so his memories of his famous father tend to center around specific activities they shared rather than daily life. When Chris was 11, the two went to Alaska for the first of many annual wilderness outings. Piano playing was another enthusiasm; Jack had picked it up by ear and urged Chris into lessons, which he loved so much that for a while he considered turning pro. Their third mutual passion was golf. Neither (especially Jack) was good at it, but every year they played in the Pebble Beach Pro/Am Tournament along with other celebrities like Clint Eastwood, and Jack never stopped trying dirty tricks on Chris. He seems to have been a wonderful father within limitations (e.g., an actor's "compulsive self-centeredness" and relentless ambition). But he was fun, never more than when he was with best friend Walter Matthau ("Uncle Waltz"). There are many anecdotes, stories on old-timers like George Burns and Chico Marx and poignant glimpses of Jack on his deathbed. This is a modest, unabashedly sentimental memoir by a son who tried acting himself but pulled out in favor of family life. Photos. (May 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Tired of carping, accusatory biographies of evil Hollywood parental units who, purposely or not, managed to turn their offspring's Tinseltown childhoods into mind-numbing horror stories? Well, roll up for Lemmon's warm remembrance of his father, Jack. The elder Lemmon's frequent screen persona of a nice guy occasionally at odds with circumstance was rooted in reality, his loving son reports. Jack also made a concerted effort to remain a part of his son's life after the obligatory screen-idol divorce from Chris' mother. "I adored and idolized Pop," and "I know he never doubted that I loved him," Chris says. "He was a great father and a man who was a hell of a lot of fun to be with." If the senior Lemmon had a dark side, readers will have to wait for a Charles Higham-style bio to see it. This inspirational memoir is a heartfelt son-to-father tribute and a great addition to the Hollywood shelves. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (August 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786288140
• ISBN-13: 978-0739468036
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,778,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sincere, Melancholy Remembrance of a Caring, Often Absent Father, May 8, 2006

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father (Hardcover)

Director Billy Wilder once said in his inimitable style of his favorite actor, "Lemmon, I would describe him as a ham, a fine ham, and with ham you have to trim a little fat." That may be quite true, but it was indeed grade-A ham whether he was hiking his skirt in "Some Like It Hot" or destroying a greenhouse in a drunken rage in "Days of Wine and Roses" or twirling his moustache in "The Great Race" or looking desperately for his son in "Missing" or begging to make another sale in "Glengarry Glen Ross". He was sometimes excessive with his nervous mannerisms but genuinely likeable, even in rare villainous roles, and always masterful. His son, former actor Chris Lemmon, has written a loving though rather melancholy tribute to his late father that appears consistent with the everyman persona the elder Lemmon most often portrayed onscreen. Not close to the embittered tell-alls from the children of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, this memoir reminds me more of Sean Ferrer's similarly glowing tribute to his mother, Audrey Hepburn.

As a child of divorce, the author chronicles his experiences of shuttling between households, but he admits leading a privileged existence with amicable parents who moved on quickly with their lives (his mother married Cliff Robertson for a short time, his father married actress Felicia Farr). Lemmon's time with his father was limited but precious, and rather than a standard chronological order, he organizes his memories thematically into distinct sections in the book - the annual fishing trips to Alaska, the numerous accidents in which his father basically destroyed his collection of classic cars, and most amusingly, the father-son golf games, in particular, the annual Pebble Beach Pro-Am Tournament in which the elder Lemmon was desperate to make the cut to the next round. What the author also talks about are the times when an absentee father presented challenges for his own journey toward an independent identity. After all, he followed in his father's footsteps and became an actor but met only limited success.

Chris Lemmon's accounts are not completely rose-colored as he is honest about the remote relationship he has had with his stepmother, a situation that has not changed since his father's death in 2001. There are also hints of tension and misunderstandings between father and son, but the younger Lemmon remains mainly close-lipped about them. While I applaud him for not besmirching his father's legacy unnecessarily, I think he could have probed a little further into the career obsession that marked Jack Lemmon as one of the most acclaimed and awarded actors of his generation. While the breadth of his roles is still startling to comprehend, it is clear it was done with some expense to his family. The author seems quite understanding in hindsight, but I imagine there must have been some impact to his psyche. Regardless, the author knows how well loved his father is and most poignantly, how much of a good father he wanted to be. What comes across clearly is the true bond that occurred between them through their mutual love of music and golf. This is not the most insightful celebrity biography I have read, but it is certainly one of the most sincere.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Touching "Twist", June 4, 2006

By 

Bobby Stevens - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father (Hardcover)

In this moving and nostalgic memoir, Chris Lemmon, (son of Jack Lemmon), gives us a personal, loving, and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny look back at his life and times with his superstar father. But this foray into the world of a Hollywood "Star's Kid" is much different than those we've seen in the past - indeed there are no wire coat hangers in this tale. Instead Lemmon chooses to "raise the bar, just as my father did" bringing us a tale of a man who's dignity and emotional generosity made him one of the most beloved stars of all times, on-screen and off.

That being said, this book is no cop-out either. Lemmon digs deep into his relationship with his father exposing all the bumps in his road, from the Hollywood divorce that robbed him of that father figure he yearned for in his adolescence, to the difficulty of estrangement by his father's second wife, or his father's battle with alcoholism - a battle he nobly and publicly won.

This is the story of a young man's quest to find his own path, while emerging from his father's iconic shadow - a story of coming to terms with his unique yet universal father/son relationship - and a story of the impact of the enormous loss he felt when, in June of 2001, he lost his father, his best friend, to cancer. Lemmon reminds us to cherish the ones we love, and heal any wounds that may exist; because life is temporal, and those loved ones could be gone tomorrow.

He not only captures his father's voice - who, it seems, was even funnier off-screen than on - but also their loving, yet hilarious relationship: From heartfelt father/son moments, to father and son running for their lives from irate Alaskan brown bears, this book covers the gamut of the emotional spectrum.

A must read for fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, or anyone interested in a good laugh - followed by a good cry.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A family love story, June 13, 2006

By 

M. Fisher (Yukon, Oklahoma United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Twist of Lemmon: A Tribute to My Father (Hardcover)

This is actually a love story between a (famous) father and his son, who early in life realized that his father's fame was no big deal, as his father never did. He quickly realized that was one of the many things that made his father so special, as was the simple fact that Jack Lemmon was never above showing love for his children. He didn't make a show of it, letting the cameras know what a 'good parent' he was. He just let his kids know they were loved.

When he took his kids fishing, there were no cameras around. It was just them. No fanfare. He didn't do things like that for accolades.

Lemmon was immensely proud of his children and their successes, although he would have preferred to have been the one to have made the cut at Pebble Beach. ;-) Still, he was Chris' biggest fan.

This book will make you laugh, appreciate Jack Lemmon even more, if that is possible, and cry a little. But if it DOES make you cry, they will be tears of joy.

I've been looking a long time for the right book regarding Jack Lemmon, and the best biography is about thirty years old. This more than fills the gap. Thank you, Chris Lemmon, for telling us such SUPER stories! (And I would have love the sequel to THE GREAT RACE.)