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Orson Welles, Vol. 1: The Road To Xanadu (1997)

Orson Welles, Vol. 1: The Road to Xanadu (1997)

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Rating
4.1 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0140254560 (ISBN13: 9780140254563)
Language
English
Publisher
penguin books

About book Orson Welles, Vol. 1: The Road To Xanadu (1997)

I am a voracious reader of biographies, the most recent being the fantastic BOGART, by Ann Sperber. That one really made you feel that you were a fly on the wall, with visceral language and enough emotion to allow the reader to relate. This one, however, does not. Callow has a stilted, very colloquially British way of writing, which to say the least is off putting and not at all fluid. He also gets lost in the weeds frequently, telling us about people and situation in which we are just not interested. We are here to read about Welles, not all of the tertiary figures surrounding his life.Interestingly as well, the author denigrates previous biographers of Welles frequently throughout the book, bad form to say the least. Even worse, his bias against his subject, who was by most measures not a very authentic or nice human being, is palpable and creeps into the narrative constantly, really breaking up the flow.Not my favorite bio, to say the least, and probably one of the worst overall that I have read. The only reason it gets three stars instead of two is that it is quite exhaustive in scope, very detailed, and clearly required a lot of research. For Welles wonks this is great, for those who enjoy a flowing and fluid framework that elicits emotional responses in the reader . . . not so much. Clinical.

A biography of Welles that covers childhood to the release of Citizen Kane. He had some astonishing good fortune in his youth that made it possible to do some extraordinary things, and the second part of the book devotes about 200 pages to what he accomplished onstage with the Mercury Theater. These productions include The Cradle Will Rock, which is the subject of a movie of the same name that explores the intersection of art, business, and politics in the 40s. The author is also an actor and director and covers a lot of detail with an engaging style and occassional commentary.

Do You like book Orson Welles, Vol. 1: The Road To Xanadu (1997)?

I've been reading this book slowly over the past six months or so, which seems appropriate to a book that covers a long, diverse period in a fascinating career. The chapters about Orson's child-and-young-adulthood are enthralling, and do a lot to explain the man and artist he eventually became. The latter part of the book has the most to say about his career in theater (which was the part I knew least about) but also covers his work in radio, and has an involved, interesting account of his life in Hollywood. The focus is in craft and collaboration, less so than his personal life (though it's hard to separate these at times), and there's also a thorough discussion of the critical/media reception of all Welles's efforts. A really thorough, fact-filled book that's also immensely readable and entertaining.
—Caroline

This exhaustive spotlight on Welles' life up until the release of Citizen Kane is triumphant; Callow's prose, highly theatrical (which is not unexpected considering his background), is charged, illuminating, vertiginous and mirth-thrilled.Welles fans will love it; film fans and scholars will find it more than curious and quite fulfilling. Fans of the American theater and radio in the 1930s will also relish this work. Some might find it bombastic, but the subject requires a high-flying style and POV. And there's another volume.
—Christopher

A thorough disappointment. Callow defines his role in the preface as fully outlining the times and events Welles lived through, in order to give a better understanding of his subject. That he does but does a 6 page discussion on the Federal Theatre Project help us understand Welles any better? Sadly not. The book is constantly sidetracked and lacks any major insight into its subject. I'd also add that while he constantly chides Welles for his overcooked style, Callow comes across as the much worse ham, with the biography written in the flowery, theatrical style that constantly draws attention to itself.
—Bm

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