Customer Reviews

The Wonderful World of Liberace

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After visiting the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas with my mom I originally bought this book as a gift for her but I couldn't resist reading it myself before passing it along. It is an amazing book! It is so nice to hear about Liberace's life directly from him. He was a fascinating, talented and generous man and this book is great for any Liberace fan and for the curious as well.

Liberace was from my hometown, Milwaukee. When I was a kid all the old ladies used to like to watch him on TV and say what a nice guy he was. They truly believed he was a bachelor who hadn't met the right girl yet, he took such good care of his mother and he had such a nice personality. Well, Liberace was sick with AIDS when this book was published less than a year before he died. He never admitted being sick -- in fact he referenced the rumors and dismissed them. He told stories of his seduction by women (only), and he showcased his horrendously over-the-top material boy life. He was writing a book about how he wanted to be remembered, with a tremendous amount of spin. It was just the way the old ladies in Milwaukee would have wanted to remember him. Even at the end of his life he was Mr. Showmanship. This book is very amusing and kitschy but it is especially valuable to demonstrate the way the mid-1980s world could deny the realities of AIDS and homosexuality.