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Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi

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Woodward's book is, of course, flawed like Judy Belushi's "Samurai Widow"; but other than these two books there is nothing more of Belushi to refer back to, in the written form. There will always be the SNL videos, the Blues Brothers CDs, or the handful of movies John did, but where does one interested enough start from when they want to make some chronological order of Belushi's life; to learn more about his exhuberent ascent, his tumultuous descent and his final dark months, weeks and days? Bob Woodward gives the reader a dry and thorough, if not somewhat-slanted, take on John Belushi's 33 years on planet Earth. The reader simply cannot help but get the feeling that the author is emphasizing the downward spiral and the end of a manically funny man, which is why this book wasn't received very well when it was first released, back in 1984.. Still, from JB's days in Wheaton, Illinois, Second City Chicago and National Lampoon, to Saturday Night Live, Hollywood and the Chateau Maramont Bungalow #3, Woodward's book is worth 3 1/2 starts and, at the very least, one good read-through.

I read this book about once a year to remind myself of how much I want to live. For anyone caught up in the illusion of the glory of life in the fast lane, the second half of this book, dealing with Belushi's last great binge in minute-by-minute detail, should be a real eye-opener. Woodward paints a balanced portrait of a much-loved, charasmatic individual trapped by his own demons. Alternately fascinating and horrifying, this is perhaps the best celebrity biography I have read. I sincerely hope it comes back into print - if not, I suggest you try to hunt a copy down; it is worth your time.

The story of John Belushi's life was a rollercoaster ride of very low times of self destruction, separated by short rises of happiness and accomplishment. John seemed to be someone that just could not be happy in his own skin, he did not see himself as a worthy human being who deserved to be happy, but instead someone who did not deserve his fame, or did not feel he was respected in the ways he thought he should be, he was constantly trying to prove himself. John was selfish, yes, he would binge for weeks on drugs, parties, and the fast life looking to fill that void regardless of who it hurt. He destroyed friendships as fast as he made them, but was always the one quick to apologize and try to mend the bridge he had just burned. I feel sorry for John and wish that he would of been given the help he was crying out to receive. Like so many before and after him his problems were ignored in hopes that he would somehow see the light and snap out of it on his own. John is to blame for his own death, and partial blame goes to his friends, but a huge part of the blame rests on Hollywood's shoulders. A town that rewards it successful entertainers with money and fame, and then quickly shuns them the minute that entertainers value has been sucked dry. Hollywood glorifies a lifestyle, in it's movies, that in reality is an impossible one to maintain. The book is very poorly written in my opinion, and Woodward easily confuses the reader by jumping from quote to quote. The readers many times is left unsure of who the quote is being taken from or who exactly the quote is about. There are a lot of scattered bits of information in the book as well and also many typos. For example in one section John's heart is described as being 222 lbs after his death. The book was interesting but so scattered I found my self struggling to stay focused and had to re-read many paragraphs to fully understand what exactly Woodward was trying to say.

I was a John Belushi fan from the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" and I think his performance in ANIMAL HOUSE puts him in the same league with the great film comedians of all time. I still vividly remember hearing about his death in March 1982 and still wonder what might have been if he was still around.
And I've read WIRED several times.

It's a horrible tragedy what happened to him, but hopefully some people can take something away from this book--see the warning and avoid the same the fate. I think the book is well-written and well-researched (I particularly liked how Woodward strictly reported the facts: someone saw Belushi in the company of a Playboy bunny and Woodward leaves it only at that--when other writers would've piled on leering speculations). If there is ever a reprint, I think there should be a new chapter by Woodward reflecting on his experience or at least the article (in ROLLING STONE?) that covered the controversy and fallout of the book's initial printing.

Nothing can change what a great talent John Belushi was. The sad details of his final days haven't diminished his accomplishments--but they did make for a scary, compelling book about the underside of Hollywood and man overwhelmed by his appetites.
(And stay way away from the obscene film version!)

John Belushi was a funny man but his story was not very funny. Bob Woodward does an incredible job of dredging up Belushi's life from a scared high school kid trying out for a play in Chicago to his coughing fit right before he died. It seems Woodward only focuses on the negatives in the book, but John Belushi's life was too short to have too many ultimite highs. SNL was a huge hit, so was Animal House, and so were the Blues Brothers. Belushi barely made 5 million dollars in his life and he spent that quickly on cocaine. He loved life so much, he never wanted to sleep. Woodward details all of it, in gut-wrenching detail. At times, Belushi's behavior gets redundant and Woodward's journalistic style gets a tad boring, but it is a good, quick read. If you can find the book and you were ever mesmerized by one of Belushi's characters, this book is a great read.

Friends and colleagues of the late John Belushi were universally critical of this biography upon its initial release. Their efforts to denigrate Bob Woodward's account of the sudden rise, popular success and early death of Belushi was unsparing in detailing his addiction to drugs and alcohol and far too accurate for their tastes.

Belushi perfected his comedic skills with the Second City troupe and went on to acclaim as one of the original cast members on "Saturday Night Live." A low budget film about a college fraternity proved to be his comedic masterpiece. I recall a professor opining that hordes of unqualified high school seniors all wanted to attend college or university solely on the strength of having seen "Animal House."

Belushi made several more films, but none ever equalled the success of "Animal House." A few were multimillion dollar flops. The actor developed an insatiable appetite for drugs. He died after being injected with a lethal overdose in a Hollywood hotel by another junkie.

This is a thoroughly depressing account of the rapid downward spiral of an addict. To paraphrase Dean Vernon Wormer of Faber College, "Fat, drugged and stupid is no way to go through life son."

This is not a sentimental biography. This is Hollywood at its worst.

1,000 friends and family members were at the funeral. So many were such a big part of his life. They loved him and would do anything for him, but they didn't do enough. None could or would save him from himself.
"Wired: The Short Life & Fast Times of John Belushi" by Bob Woodward takes a good look at the events of his life that led him to sudden fame and his fast spiral downward of fast living and drugs that led to his death much too early for this brilliant and much loved comic genius.

You may learn more then you want to know about some pretty big names in the entertainment industry, that either unwittingly helped Belushi or partied hardy with him on his road to self-destruction. I admire them for stepping up and telling their stories to Author Woodward(even the drug dealers themselves have some interesting accounts), and although some actually lectured John on the evils of what he was doing to himself, and at one point a self-professed anti-drug enforcer was hired to help out,I was dismayed by the lack of courage on any of these giants, and those closest to him, to take drastic measures to save his life. Many times the interviewees say, he was headed for death. Woodward does an excellent job of supplying the details of his life and times,his fast rising career, the attitudes of his friends, the movie studio execs, his family and even his Doctors. No one could say NO to him.

It is clear that alot of time,hundreds of interviews, and extensive research has gone into this book, making it a must read for fans. John's bigger then life personality, his constant demand and need for artistic freedom and control are a very big part of this story. My problem came in about the first third of the book. To be honest I found this part a bit tedious and repetitive. Adoring fans, need not be reminded of nearly every line he spoke or wrote for the Saturday Night Live sketches. Long ago, we already made his famous phrases our own("Cheezbugga, Cheezbugga".... "But Nooooooo...." ), and we could probably still recall in great detail, all the great moments he gave us. I did however find the look behind the scenes of this great show, and the movie ranglings most interesting. Each film he did or had a script for is talked about in detail, along with his state of being during that time.As the book goes on though, and especially towards the end where we are with him every one of his last hours on earth, we get a very good look into the craziness his life spiraled.

By the end I was saddened once again by the loss of one of my favorites, and thought about all the laughs the world has missed out on. I also felt angered by the lack of help he received from all those close to him, and thought there were some matters that were just sluffed off by the particiapnats and not detailed enough by the Author, for example the police investigation.The book also has numerous pix..my favorite..John in his Samauri warrior costume.

An interesting read, one that may stir fans to say:

"'Bluto'....you have been truly missed" .....Laurie
recommended reading:
Kirk Douglas The Ragman's Son An Autobiography
Rebels on the Backlot Six Maverick Direc

I've always been a huge fan of John Belushi's. He was a gifted performer and now twenty-two years after his death there still hasn't been another actor who's managed to capture John's unique presence. Jack Black really doesn't compare, in my opinion.

With that being said, I think the book "Wired" should stand on its own as a great, cautionary tale of how ANYONE can be destroyed by a system, or a substance and ultimately by themselves. I think too much emphasis is put on the fact that this is strictly John Belushi's life and problems. Many have said the book exposes John's private behavior in an unfair, biased way and doesn't give any answers. I revel at how Woodward wrote the book in a creepy, detailed manner much like a police officer's report of a homicide or something. Towards the end of the book Woodward breaks down the chapters by Belushi's final days and then final hours so the reader feels an impending doom that makes turning to the next page truly dismaying. You know unfortunately how the story ends and it's so frustrating and sad. I think this method is much more effective then trying to tell this story with poetry or psychological analysis which is exactly where the dreadful film version in '89 went so wrong.

The cold reporting of events again reiterates my point that this book shouldn't be looked at as a true biography of John Belushi. He's merely the source material for a lurid journal of Hollywood corruption. I don't think even John's wife Judy managed to get a truly revealing portrait of John. In "Samurai Widow" what you get is her biography basically. I guess John died too young and his behavior was either too mysterious or accidental in nature to really get a meaningful history of him. A person, especially a celebrity, in the end is frequently remembered for one entity sometimes even apart from the person they were in life. I think John Belushi's comic genius should be how he's remembered and not simply as a drug addict.

The problem with this book is not that Woodward is too tough on Belushi. He's too easy on his sources. The breakdown is this:

Belushi, being dead, can't tell Woodward what happened to him. However, there are (literally!) hundreds of dope pushers, groupies, strippers, bikers, has-been comics, bar flies, scum bags, scrounge artists, movie directors, session musicians, and network television executives, who are HAPPY to sit down and tell Woodward THEIR version of John Belushi. And each and every one of these people has only ONE objective -- cover his own rear end. In other words, EVERY person here has to explain how HE didn't make John flip out, it was those other guys! The book reads like this for two hundred pages --

"Joe Blow had never made it as an actor, but now he liked to think of himself as a dope dealer with heart. It caused him a lot of pain to see John out of control, begging for more dope. Joe felt bad about selling to him, but what could he do? If he didn't, some other guy would -- some guy not as talented and well meaning."

Or it goes more like this --

"Harvey Katzenberg knew there was a good chance John would die before the film wrapped -- he was doing too much dope. On the other hand, if Harvey complained about the constant dope, the crowd of bikers and strippers, John might get mad and leave the set early. Then Harvey would be out millions. It was better, he thought, to let John keep on doing his drugs, at least until the film wrapped. At least then the film would get made and Harvey's daughter could get that new Porsche."

The book is so dry that you can't tell if Woodward is allowing these slimy parasites to kid him along -- or if he's laughing at them the whole time. I did read a fascinating PLAYBOY interview with Woodward some years later, where he indicated the whole Hollywood community hated him for showing them up --showing how they let their good buddy John kill himself right in front of them. Problem is, the book itself is dull because Woodward never imposes any kind of authorial voice or objective truth. All we get are 101 lying parasites rationalizing away, with Belushi's corpse stinking up the back room.

Bob Woodward's masterpiece work (now out of print and why?) is a book about an all-American comedy entertainment hero, John Belushi who like the title of the book says lived fast and died young. Now a warning! for your own sake please do not attempt to emulate what you read in these heart-wrenching pages for you might just as well end up lonely at the bottom of the barrel and dead of an overdose. Yes the book is detailed but mostly detailed where there is little or no fun to be found at all and those are mostly the pages dealing with John's worn out, strung out day to day life and then his never ending substance abuse that makes him sadder and and sadder on the self chosen path to the early inevitable. Yes John Belushi was funny, genuinely funny, he was good, good in his heart and soul but his inner demons got the best of him in the end. Yes there is sensationalism in the book (never ending drug references) but dont ever for a moment think that to be an artist(in any sense), means you have to abuse drugs, because not only will you not be an artist anymore you will cease to be alltogether and leave behind you only a path of destruction and a trail of tears. If this book still doesn't drive home the message there is also another that should do it then: "The Chris Farley Show" . Enough said. Thank you very much. Darie Petrovic 09/12/2010