Pen Name

It's honest. That's important.

Reviewed: 12-11-24

This is a really interesting memoir, at least until you reach the (appalling) Godfather 3 movie section.
Downhill from there.
Then this previously highly-principled fussy picky actor suddenly lost all his scruples, his integrity, and his self-constraint.
And became a somewhat dull somewhat hammy 'actor'
There was a reason that Robert Duvall would have nothing to do with GF3.
Godfather 3, the end of many artistic careers.
Al hit it lucky with Donnie Brasco and Carlito's Way. But he was already struggling.
So if you can endure the last 66.67% of this audio book, you will enjoy it I'm sure.

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The usual

Reviewed: 06-11-24

Jay Rayner. What can you say? You could say 'whining whingeing clueless wannabe', etc etc - but that would be SO mean.
I would say instead something much gentler: possibly self-serving, career-orientated food nerd who likes the sound of his own voice. No, strike that, who LOVES the sound of his own voice.
So if you can sit through any of his many (curiously almost identical length) books, good luck to you.

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Very good

Reviewed: 06-11-24

Very very good. Very very good indeed 15 words yet? Nope. So let's just say

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Perfect.

Reviewed: 21-01-24

A blow by blow account of the making of GF1.
Was it going to be a turkey? Was it going to be one of the best movies ever made? Was Coppola going to wind up insane?
The scale of the GF1 project was overwhelming from the start, it was never going to be an easy shoot. But add the in-fighting, the over-runs, the studio negativity etc, and it becomes an almost impossible feat.
But they pulled it off big-time, against all odds. And this book documents this journey in great detail.
I found this book exciting and fascinating from start to finish, a story well told and well researched, really good narration.
2/3rds through this book I was inspired to watch the movie again, probably for the 6th ot 7th time.
It came up fresh, definitely enhanced by this book.
Watch the Coppola restoration version if you are inspired to watch it. So beautiful.
A brilliant movie, one brilliant book.

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Harrowing and mostly convincing, but...

Reviewed: 21-01-24

I’m really glad that this person escaped their various addictions: gambling, alcohol, coke, opiods.
I sincerely mean that. I wish him well.
The stories are harrowing and mostly convincing.
But inevitably in the latter parts of the narrative, ‘god’ arrives and tries – unsuccessfully at first – to save him, ‘god’ prevails in the end though, phew.
So, in spite of the world-wide daily mass slaughter of innocents, the school shootings, all the painful terminal illnesses people are forced to suffer, this ‘god’ had the time to sort out the life of some random junkie.
Is that the premise? Seriously?
Hey, whatever gets you through the night. If it works, it works.
But maybe don’t share this nonsense.
The narrator is really good.

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well-researched... but...

Reviewed: 29-11-23

It's well-researched book. Very detailed.
But it seems to miss the point. Over and over.
For example, Nick Drake did not set the world on fire with his music for a very good reason. It's no mystery, though the author seems to think it is.
The music Nick Drake made just wasn't good enough.
On the plus side, he was one of the cleanest, most precise guitar players that ever walked the earth.
And very creative with that instrument.
But his lyrics almost always fell short.
No impetus, no passion, no point. He had nothing to say at the end of the day.
Helpless and frankly daft rhymes.
And those string and flute arrangements? Ouch.
The 'instrumental interludes' ETC? Ye gods.
If you remember the Test Card on the telly or muzak in supermarkets, you are in the ball park.
Maybe if he had lived to make more albums, something important and significant would have happened in his music.
He might have grown as an artist. But sadly it was not to be.
So, if you're still interested, this is a comprehensive and detailed biography, read - albeit in a very stilted manner - by its author.
It's OK as far as it goes

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Depressing. Ain't it awful?

Reviewed: 17-11-23

Ain't it awful? Yep.
Has it been awful for most of the last 40 years or so? Yep.
James O'Brien carefully but relentlessly buries you under an avalanche of bad deeds, bad actors, self serving ego maniacs, plots and sub-plots, reckless and frankly stupid actions and policy decisions.. There isn't much light shining in here.
It's mostly familar content, but a relentless ten and a half hours list is a depressing experience.
It's well-wriiten - maybe a tad one-paced - and very well-read by the author.
But I could do with a literary version of an amuse bouche now I've finished it.

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Interesting-- but?

Reviewed: 25-10-23

Take one violent abusive self-obsessed thief scam artist porn-addict with a penchant for easily taking offence and holding murderous grudges forever.
Whisk in a difficult mother and loads of alcohol, plus a few container trucks of hard drugs. Quite a few trucks.
What do you get?
A harrowing story from a completely unlikeable person.
A person who delights in the sordid details, and goes to great lengths to share them with you. Over and over. And over again.
Did I mention 'over again'.
Apparently happily bathing in telling the story of appalling degradation and desolation of full-on drug addiction.
A kind of pride in there somewhere?
He reads really well, and the story as narrated is as engaging as it is repellent.
Here's the 'but':
was it worth it? Is the music worth all this?
I'm not sure.
I'm glad he escaped.
I'm sorry he died relatively young.
But the music? No, not really. Not worth it.

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1 person found this helpful

Interesting back stories, and very well read

Reviewed: 21-09-23

Beautifully read, and mostly interesting back stories, lots of data to mull over and pursue.
But does it excite and compel? Hmm, no, not really.
Music criticism is tough.
Literary criticism is words about words, and that makes sense to an extent, but musical criticism is words about music, and that's a problem. How do you describe/evoke music in a compelling way using words?
Ditto with art criticism - words about paint on canvas, words about forms in space... you can describe an artwork. But can you evoke the experience of actuallly looking at it and experiencing it? No you can't.
This is a pivot point for a critic: and the only safe fallback is to get a tad poetic: try words like 'shimmering' ‘angular’ then maybe describe the scales and systems used etc. etc.
But this is not the work itself, can never be, it’s just a description/evocation of the work.
Like describing the view from Helvellyn or Snowden or Ben Nevis.
The description isn’t – can never be –the ’thing in itself’
So I enjoyed and finished this work, the social and cultural context of the composers etc were elucidated very well.
But on finishing, I was left with a curious empty feeling.
I also wondered – given its original remit - how the author chose/rejected composers.
What was that selection process exactly, I wonder…
.

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What's the point

Reviewed: 04-09-23

I couldn't get past halfway, and i really tried.
The writing is like a cross between a discarded Le Carre novel, some forgotten British B movie from the 50s, and an Enid Blyton 'adventure'. Yes, that's quite a combination.
Good period research is not enough.
At some point the reader (listener) needs to either:
a) find a way to care about, and engage with, these desperately uninteresting characters and the desperately uninteresting plot or
b) realise the whole thing is some kind of tongue-in-cheek satire (in which case, it's just not very funny)

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