Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but ...., July 24, 2001
By A Customer
After reading Dispatches and Kubrick, my expectations for a Michael Herr book were so high that Walter Winchell would have had to be a masterpiece to satisfy them. Unfortunately, although it's entertaining, interesting, and educational, Winchell isn't a masterpiece. Herr's screenplay-styled prose -- complete with character names in all caps, cinematic devices like spinning newspaper headlines, and a story driven almost entirely by dialogue -- may constitute a unique blend of styles, but it's also a good reminder of why most people don't walk around reading screenplays. (William Goldman's creed that screenplay is structure, not dialogue, isn't followed here.) Herr may have used lots of cliches on purpose -- the better to evoke a period movie feel -- but the countless cliches nevertheless wear thin. We see Walter rise through vaudeville, lower journalistic standards, make and break stars, and throw tantrums, but everything feels vaguely predictable -- down to a description of Sinatra as a "skinny little Italian kid from Hoboken", and a final tear-jerking scene of defeated Winchell watching the hoisting of an American flag. Having said all this -- Winchell is still a good fast read. It's more colorful than a traditional biography, and the endless patter gives a good sense of the rhythms of Winchell's life. If Dispatches and Kubrick hadn't been so brilliant perhaps I'd have given it four or even five stars. That may not be quite fair to Mr. Herr. But that's the price of creating such classics as Dispatches -- expectations go through the roof.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced, funny, & touching., August 27, 1998
By A Customer
Herr calls it prose fiction, & it's funny & fast paced; Herr seems to be parodying the very people he's writing about. Winchell spoke & wrote (Larry King's USA Today "column" is a 3d-rate parody of Winchell), & Runyon & Hemingway wrote the way this book reads. Who needs 500-page researched biographies? It's almost all dialogue, quips, & jokes. And where else can you discover that Hemingway nailed Josephine Baker?
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unputdownable!, October 18, 1997
Michael Herr, author of the incredible 'Dispatches', again takes on the challenge of altering the nature of narrative, and creates a new type of book, part screen play, part novel. Amazing character development. I had hardly heard of Walter Wenchall before I read this. It's amazing that a figure of this magnatude could become a forgotten footnote in our culture. Rush should read this.
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