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Garbo (Paperback)

by Barry Paris (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Review
A thorough but often graceless narrative of a life that might better have remained shrouded in mystery. Paris (Louise Brooks, 1989) has classic material to work with. Teenage Greta Gustafson is discovered in Stockholm by director Mauritz Stiller, who tyrannizes her, changes her name, makes her a star, and accompanies her to Hollywood. Stiller's career stalls, and he dies a failure. Meanwhile Garbo becomes the familiar icon that her roles frequently mirrored: the perpetually exhausted, gloomy, misunderstood woman with the mesmerizing face. During the period of her stardom and for the 49 years that followed her inadvertent retirement in 1941, Garbo cultivated her pathological, and paradoxical, loathing of publicity and wariness of strangers. This seems to have served not only as a means of self-protection; it was also wise publicity strategy, for she comes off in the reminiscences of her friends and colleagues as paranoid, incurious, and self-absorbed. Paris tellingly repeats Cecil Beaton's observation that "if she hadn't been 'Garbo,' nobody would've wanted to be around her for ten minutes." Paris had access to 100 hours of recorded phone conversations between Garbo and art dealer and confidant Sam Green from the 1970s and '80s that portray Garbo as swamped in her own banality, refusing to speak of her films but always ready to complain about her wrinkles, her diet, and her disgust at being recognized in the street. Paris is particularly skillful when detailing Garbo's abortive attempts at a comeback, but the chronology of his anecdotes is sometimes scrambled, and he offers dubious psychosexual insights in his effort to defend an improbably chaste portrait of her: "Garbo's own innocence was as real as it appeared onscreen, and it was a quality that had to do with love, not sex." The prose is often marred by similarly tortuous analyses. Although it leaves her motivations enigmatic, this will likely be the definitive Garbo biography; unfortunately, the story of her life is far less captivating than her screen legacy. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Greta Garbo (1905-1990) is as famous for her reclusiveness as for starring in such enduring classics as Flesh and the Devil, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, and Ninotchka. In this richly illustrated volume, renowned biographer Barry Paris offers the definitive biography of this fascinating and complex woman-from her hardscrabble childhood in Sweden to her arrival in Hollywood at the age of nineteen, from her meteoric rise to stardom to her unintentional retirement from filmmaking at the height of her fame, from the new life she crafted for herself to her surprising, and failed, plans for a comeback. Drawing on hitherto unavailable material, including one hundred hours of tape-recorded conversations, fifty years of correspondence, and interviews with Garbo's surviving friends and family, Paris reveals the real woman behind the enigma.

"Barry Paris has crafted a magnificent, moving biography-a feast of rare, delicious facts, exploded myths, and compassionate observations. Surely it will be the final word on this most-fantasized-about movie idol." Liz Smith, New York Daily News

"A witty, clearheaded correction to all the misinformation that has become part of the Garbo legend." Julie Salamon, Vogue

"Magnificent, literate, detailed, and scrupulous. This is a book that at last solves the riddle of the Sphinx." Hugh Leonard, Sunday Independent (London)

"A substantial work exploring the enigmatic life of one of the twentieth century's most famous icons, a book notable above all for its humanity and compassion." Robert Sklar, Newsday

"This strong, rich biography has sweeping detail, a huge cache of photos, and a satisfying grip on Garbo's character. . . . Paris offers what is likely to be the standard life of Garbo-handsomely made, a gripping must-read." Donald Newlove, Hollywood Reporter

Barry Paris is an award-winning biographer, film and music critic, and journalist who is the author of Louise Brooks (Minnesota, 2001). His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, American Film, and numerous other publications. He lives in Pittsburgh.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 680 pages
  • Publisher: University of Minnesota Press (September 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 081664182X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0816641826
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #697,411 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Meticulous Job, August 15, 2004
By Kathleen Chamberlain (Emory, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
One of the problems with celebrity biography is that biographers often claim too much, offering as fact things that are actually speculation or hearsay. Barry Paris avoids this trap very well, indicating clearly which of his conclusions are speculative and which can be documented. We see the value of this approach in his chapter on Garbo's sexuality: unlike some other Garbo biographers, Paris wisely refuses to rely on circumstantial evidence. Yes, I'm disappointed that the information is not more definitive, but then again, who would expect the record of Garbo's life to be any less ambiguous than the woman herself? (And, as Garbo would no doubt point out, her sex life is none of our business anyway.)

If Paris is careful to separate fact from gossip in biographical details, he is less cautious when indulging in psychological conjecture. For instance, his explanation of Garbo's attraction to women (or her "sexual pathology," as he terms it) is superficial, amateurish, and at times downright offensive (p. 249). (She turned to women only because she had been so hurt and betrayed by men? Please. Why must same-sex attraction be explained in terms of psychological damage and trauma? Why must it be "explained" at all?)

In general, the biography is weakest in its psychological and cultural analyses. Despite some interesting insights, Paris is obviously no psychologist, nor is he much of a cultural theorist. But I found it easy to skim these sections and instead concentrate on the specifics of Garbo's life and words, material that Paris presents thoroughly, meticulously, and (as far as I can tell) honestly. He's respectful of his subject without being obsequious or gushy; he treats Garbo's flaws in a balanced fashion.

Structurally, Paris can be repetitive. Stylistically, he tends to overuse his exclamation points! In a piece of serious writing, this quirk is distracting!

But all in all, "Garbo" is a solid, informative, enjoyable biography.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Garbo? Garbo who?, January 27, 2006
By M. A Newman (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
It is probably the case that more often than not the people who produce biographies of film stars hold themselves to a lower standard than other authors. After all, most of these are trite recitations of scandals both real and imagined in which they are paired in any number of combinations.

Happily this is not the case with this book by Barry Paris. Mr. Paris brings a unique and scholarly approach to this work on the enigmatic silent and talky film star.

Frequently what compels people to write these kinds of books is the assurance that a film star's fan base will be sufficient to provide a ready made audience. In the case of Garbo's career, as Mr. Paris cites time and time, it was her skill as an actress that enabled her to raise the quality of a work to greater levels time and time again.

Garbo's personal life was something else. It is clear that while probably a pleasant person to intimates, she did not suffer fools or intrusions gladly. In the final analysis as Mr. Paris points out, Garbo had two things going for her, her remarkable talent as an actress and the lengths she would go to to avoid unwanted contact. Otherwise she led a perfectly ordinary life with ordinary needs, sometimes carried almost to the level of excess in the case of Garbo's numerous quest for shoes. Still this mixture of the banal and rarified is the stuff of real life.

I would suggest that anyone reading this book might also enjoy the TCM collection of Garbo movies that came out last year in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of her birth. This wonderful set also includes a copy of "Flesh and the Devil" with commentary by Mr. Paris.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A top-notch bio, October 19, 2006
By Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This biography is just as well-written and meticulously-researched as Mr. Paris's biography on Louise Brooks, which I had read prior to reading this one. He's a great celebrity biographer; he really does his homework, doesn't really get into the sleazy, sensational, and speculative trap that a lot of other celebrity biographers too often fall into, has a clear respect for his subject without fawning all over her, sugarcoating less than perfect aspects of her life, or holding her up as some sort of demigoddess, and clearly distinguishes between fact, outright fantasy and falsehood, and rumor and speculation that could go either way. This professional approach is keenly felt when he's writing about Garbo's relationships with men and women; there were some affairs of hers that were well-substatiated by outside evidence (most particularly her affair with Jack Gilbert), but other than that one can't really say how many relationships she may have had, or even that she were actively bisexual, though she clearly felt more comfortable emotionally with women. She wasn't entirely asexual either; though she did seem more comfortable alone, with no one invading her privacy and personal territory, she didn't go through life completely celibate either. And of course, Mr. Paris makes this topic one of only many covered in the book, since what she did or didn't do with anyone she may or may not have had a relationship with isn't really any of our business.

What makes this book, and its subject, so fascinating is the fact that the majority of Garbo's life was not lived on-camera. She had her childhood and adolescence, her years of acting in Sweden, Germany, and America in the Twenties and Thirties, and then retired from the screen in the early Forties (though there was a strong possibility she could have had to return to the screen in 1948, and many other times before and since). Mr. Paris even points out that, of the relatively small amount of films she was in, not a whole lot of them would be considered great cinematic works of art or classics. To paraphrase the old saying, she was rarely in a picture that was as good as she was. However, the force of her personality, her riveting screen presence, her unique and androgynous beauty, and her acting talent elevated these films beyond formula pictures, made one watch them in spite of the not always great scripts. Particularly interesting are the chapters on Garbo's life post-acting. Mr. Paris brings these years of retirement to vivid life, showing us that just because she had willingly dropped out of public view didn't mean she had ceased to live a fascinating life; in fact, in some ways her post-acting life was even more colorful and interesting. He also chronicles the real story of her famous desire to be alone, or to be left alone, and how the truth was more complex than just a shy recluse or a former moviestar who shunned most human contact. She led a very full and active social life during those nearly 50 years off-screen, and had friendships with a lot of high-profile and fascinating people, pursued a lot of diverse interests, had a lot of interesting thoughts, and generally lived a very interesting life. He also examines the truth behind why she never married; on the one hand, there's ample evidence to suggest that she just preferred to be alone, didn't want to be made vulnerable by intimacy, would feel invaded or violated by such intrusion, was never really cut out to be the stereotypical traditional wife and mother; but on the other hand, some of her close associates felt that perhaps she could have been happy with a partner who knew and understood her need to be alone and the fact that she would never be a housewife or conform to the traditional gender role assigned to women in Western society, and even said she sometimes voiced regret she had never married or had a family. Whatever the case, she was always very much her own person with her own identity.

However, even in a bio this meticulous and even-handed, there are bound to be some errors. The major one I noticed was Mr. Paris's statement that 'The Kiss,' Garbo's final silent, was also the last silent released in America but for Chaplin's last stands, 'City Lights' (1931) and 'Modern Times' (1936). 'The Kiss' came out in mid-November 1929, but there were still some theatres in America not wired for sound, and some artists who were still releasing silents they had made earlier that year, such as Laurel and Hardy's final silent, 'Angora Love,' which came out in December of 1929. Additionally, some of the more minor studios did release silent pictures in 1930, so to say that this was the final American silent picture is kind of dishonest. It would have been better had he said it was the last *major* American silent. Another error I noticed was when Mr. Paris referred to Natacha Rambova (whose forename he didn't even spell correctly) as a lesbian. This seems to be just one of those old unfounded rumors that just won't go away. The reader also might disagree with some of his opinions or conclusions about some of her films, or certain aspects of them, but the beauty of opinions is that we're all entitled to our own and aren't forced to agree with someone else's.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about this famous and elusive enigma and to go beyond long-time rumors and speculation to find out the facts.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars KOLA BOOF
After reading this, I think that writer Kola Boof is the new Greta Garbo just as the New York Times wrote she is. What remarkable simularities.
Published 1 month ago by Lolly

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best biographies I've ever read
I have always been a fan of books about movies, film stars and anything related to Holywood Golden Years, the era of the big studios and stellar actors and actresses who still are... Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. C. Martinez

2.0 out of 5 stars Long and Dull...
Let me start by saying, I bought this book because of all the great reviews it got here. So, I thought I'd better give my opinion too, since it is so different! Read more
Published 11 months ago by Lanie

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about Garbo


The cause that I decided to grab that book written by Barry Paris is quite obvious. I live in Russia and all the information in Russian Garbo is concerned with can... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ulita Lipskova

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best
I completely enjoyed this book. But then I am a devoted Garbo fan.
It is almost like a game trying to piece her life together to be able to understand her. Read more
Published on January 5, 2007 by Catherine Mckee

4.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding. A great read.
The best writing available on Garbo. The most comprehensive. Engaging. I was sorry there was not more info on her family. Her relationship with them. The people themselves. Read more
Published on November 13, 2006 by A. Gasak

5.0 out of 5 stars garbo in private
Very comprehensive, but some detail missing.
Not much information about her neice and sole heir, Gray Reisfield, for example.
Published on April 1, 2006 by Greg Nordstrom

4.0 out of 5 stars "Garbo", Barry Paris
Book finaly arrived after 17 calendar days! Great condition, extraodinary book with a lot of rare pictures! It was worth to wait! Thank you!
Published on October 16, 2005 by Ludmila Holdren

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed it immensely!
This is a wonderful biography!

It has such a 'clean' and rational feel about it, and it is chock-full of information regarding Greta Garbo's daily life and habits as well as... Read more

Published on August 28, 2003 by Doxielover

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