Book Review: "BURN IT DOWN" Goes After Hollywood's Biggest Abusers

BURN IT DOWN: POWER, COMPLICITY, AND A CALL FOR CHANGE IN HOLLYWOOD

HARPERCOLLINS/Mariner Books

AUTHOR: Maureen Ryan

ISBN: 978-0-06-326927-9; hardcover (June 6, 2023)

400pp, B&W, $32.50 U.S., $40.00 CAN

Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood is a 2023 nonfiction book from author Maureen Ryan.  Ryan is a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, and she has had a three-decade career as a reporter and critic for such publications as GQ, The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, and Variety, to name a few.

Abuse and exploitation of workers is baked into the very foundations of the entertainment industry and in Hollywood, specifically.  It is a cycle, and if that cycle is going to be broken, it is important to stop looking at headline-making stories as individual events.  To make change that sticks, we must look closely at the bigger picture, to see how abusers are created, fed, rewarded, and allowed to persist.  People must discover how they can be excised – with the right tools.

In Burn It Down, veteran reporter Maureen Ryan does just that.  Drawing on decades of experience, Ryan connects the dots and illuminates the deeper forces sustaining Hollywood’s corrosive culture.  She offers fresh reporting that sheds light on problematic situations at television series such as ABC's “Lost” (2004-10) and “The Goldbergs” (2013-23); NBC's "Saturday Night Live" (1975-present); Fox's “Sleepy Hollow” (2013-17); HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (12 seasons over the period of 2000 to 2024), to name a few.

Ryan weaves insights from industry insiders together with historical context and pop-culture analysis.  Most of all, Burn It Down both shows us what’s gone wrong in the entertainment world and also how people can fix it.

THE LOWDOWN:  I first heard of Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood when Hollywood trade publications and social media started reporting a particular section of Maureen Ryan's book.  The chapter entitled, “'Lost' and the Myths of a Golden Age.”  I think many fans had an idealized view of the creative process behind ABC's Emmy-winning TV series, “Lost.”

What the people behind the scenes of the show knew was that that the production of the series involved the machinations and temperamental behavior of executive producer and showrunner, Carlton Cuse, and the codependency of fellow executive producer, Damon Lindelof.  The report about the book offered juicy “Lost” details, but Burn It Down offers further insight via Ryan's interview of fired “Lost actor, Harold Perrineau.

“Lost” is just one part of the story.  Ryan's revealing conversations with actor Orlando Jones details an ugly behind-the-scenes situation with Fox's former supernatural drama, “Sleepy Hollow.”  It seems that after the first season, which was well-received, Fox became concerned that the series was “too Black,” meaning too much focus on too many African-American characters.

Once again, “Sleepy Hollow” is just one part of the story.  Burn It Down is a virtual horror show of stories of terrible behavior – usually committed by white men – behind many hit TV series.  In the book, actress Evan Rachel Wood talks about the abuse she has suffered over the years, especially at the hands of her former boyfriend, rock star Marilyn Manson.  Burn It Down details the Nxivm cult and also the abuse of EGOT recipient, super-producer Scott Rudin.

Still, fully one-third of Burn It Down (the book's “Part Two”) talks about moving forward.  How can people clean up the industry?  What does “centering survivors” and “doing the work” look like?  How does the industry foster real change or even create a new model of creative leadership?

I get the feeling that writing this book took a lot out of Ryan, but I believe that there are more horror stories to tell, enough to fill several books.  Maybe, other writers can pick up this crusade.  In the meantime, I adore Burn It Down, and I recommend it to fans of non-fiction books about Hollywood and about the “Me Too” movement.  In the meantime, the paperback edition is due June 4, 2024.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:   Fans of nonfiction books about Hollywood scandals will want to read Burn it Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

A copy of BURN IT DOWN can be bought at AMAZON.

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Review: "MASTERS OF MAKE-UP EFFECTS" is a Century of Practical Magic in One Magical Book

MASTERS OF MAKE-UP EFFECTS: A CENTURY OF PRACTICAL MAGIC

WELBECK PUBLISHING

AUTHORS: Howard Berger and Marshall Julius

DESIGN: Russell Knowles; Darren Jordan

EDITORS: Ross Hamilton and Roland Hall

ISBN: 978-0-80279-001-6; hardcover – 9” x 11” (September 20, 2022)

320pp, Color, $39.95 U.S., £30.00 U.K.

Forward by Guillermo Del Toro; Afterword by Seth MacFarlane

Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic is a film history and art book from authors Howard Berger and Marshall Julius.  Berger is a special make-up effects artist with over 800 feature film credits.  With Tami Lane, Berger won the “Best Make-up” Academy Award for their work on the 2005 film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Julius is a London-based film critic, blogger, broadcaster and author, whose previous books include Vintage Geek (September Publishing, 2019) and Action! The Action Movie A-Z (Batsford Film Books, 1996).

Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic is an illustrated oral history of the art form of make-up effects, celebrating the make-up artists and acclaimed make-up effects masters from the world of both film and television  The authors take their readers into that fascinating world via untold stories from the sets of both popular and cult films and television.  Read the tales behind the make-up and effects on such films as An American Werewolf in London, Star Wars, Pan's Labyrinth, and The Thing, to name a few.  Visit the sets of such TV series as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Doctor Who,” “Star Trek,” and “The Walking Dead,” to name a few.

THE LOWDOWN:  In Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic, there are 293 stories over 15 chapters.  I counted.  That made Masters of Make-Up Effects one of my most difficult book reviews – if not the most difficult.  There is just so much good stuff for film fans and movie buffs that reading it can sometimes feels like sensory overload.

First, I'll mention something that absolutely delighted me.  Co-author Marshall Julius pens an introduction that recounts an interview he conducted with his then-future co-author, Howard Berger, in 2006.  It ended with Berger applying his make-up effects magic on Julius, and the result of that magic...  Well, you have to buy Masters of Make-Up Effects to find out what it is.  [If you are a movie fan, you really should already have this book.]

Masters of Make-Up Effects contains hundreds of photographs, a few of which I was familiar.  However, the vast majority were new to me – these photographs of actors, directors, and, of course, the make-up and effects artists who are the stars of this book.  Yes, I have seen make-up special effects legend, Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow), in film and on television for decades.  However, the other photographs put faces on these make-up effects and make-up artists I only knew as names on screen, on the Internet, and in books.  This includes masters such as Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Greg Nicotero, Dick Smith, David White, Kevin Yagher, and Louis Zakarian, to name a few.

Seeing a photo of Stuart Freeborn and another of the members of his Star Wars “creature crew” was almost a religious experience.  Thank you, Howard and Marshall, for that.  Freeborn and company were the people behind Chewbacca and the creatures of the “Mos Eisley cantina sequence” in the first Star Wars.  In 1982, I saw Star Wars in a pre Return of the Jedi re-release.  That Saturday afternoon, I followed Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi into that “wretched hive of scum and villainy” and movies were never the same for me after that.  So finally seeing the artists behind it is a big deal.

While trying to find a way to talk about all these photos, it was then that I realized that Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic is not only a book of photographs, but it is also a book of stories.  If you like science fiction, fantasy, and horror films and television, this book of stories is for you and the fans in your life.  The storytellers include the great Robert Englund, Rick Baker, Doug Bradley, Bruce Campbell, Nick Dudman, Toni G, Doug Jones, John Landis, James McAvoy, Greg Nicotero, Sarah Rubano, and Tom Savini, to once again name a few.

One does not need to be a fantasy film fan to love this book.  After all, film and TV dramas also require make-up effects and make-up artists.  Chapter 13 is entitled “Reel Lives” and focuses on the make-up work behind films based on real-life figures.  Actors have to be made up to resemble historical figures like Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins in 2012's Hitchcock); Judy Garland (Renée Zellwegger in 2019's Judy); and Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady), to name a few.

I bought this book almost a few months ago, and I find myself repeatedly returning to it.  I can't get enough of the photographs or the stories.  Howard Berger and Marshall Julius have created an important book in Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic, both for what it is and for what it may mean in the future.

As more people discover this book, some because of a second printing, they will realize that it is a gem.  Over time, it will become an important resource for reference and scholarly research.  Movie and television fans, put those unused gift cards from Christmas and the holidays to use and buy Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers who are fans of the magic that is movies will want a copy of Masters of Make-Up Effects: A Century of Practical Magic.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://www.welbeckpublishing.com/

https://twitter.com/welbeckpublish

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The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Negromancer Book Review: "BTS: Blood, Sweat & Tears"

BTS: BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS
VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Tamar Herman
DESIGN: Evi-O Studios
ISBN: 978-1-97471-713-2; hardcover; 7.875 x 10.5 (August 2020)
312pp., Color, $27.99 U.S.

BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears is a new hardcover book about the worldwide musical phenomenon known as BTS.

BTS (also known as the Bangtan Boys) is a seven-member, South Korean boy band.  The group was first put together, beginning in 2010, by “Big Hit Entertainment,” a South Korean entertainment company.  The members of BTS are RM – leader and rapper; Jin – vocalist; Suga – rapper; J-Hope – rapper; Jimin – vocalist; V – vocalist, and Jungkook – vocalist.  The members write and produce much of their recorded musical output, and while BTS was initially a hip hop group, the members have embraced a wide range of musical genres.

BTS's debut musical recording was the “single album,” 2 Cool 4 Skool.  A June 2013 release, it contained seven singles and two “hidden tracks.”  August 2014 saw the release of the group's debut, Korean-language studio album, Dark & Wild.  December 2014 saw the release of their debut, Japanese-language studio album, Wake Up.  In December 2015, BTS's 2015 album, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Pt. 2, became the group's first album to make the “Billboard 200” United States' album sales chart.  On May 27, 2018, BTS's third studio album, Love Yourself: Tear, debuted at the number one position on the Billboard 200 chart.  It was the first time a Korean album had topped the U.S. album sales chart, as well as being the highest charting album by an Asian musical recording act.

And there is something... almost... magical about them.  BTS's music videos are visually striking with dazzling effects, imaginative production design, and alluring colors  Their songs embrace familiar hip-hop and electronic popular music (“electropop”) sub-genres.  They also sing R&B-inspired ballads, which should be familiar to fans of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.  BTS's music also sounds like something different and new – sounds from a future that is leaving behind the funky phantoms of pop anthems past.  And a seven-member boy-band slash vocal group is just hard to ignore.

Well, BTS has a story to be told, and the New York City-based journalist, Tamar Herman, is telling it in the new hardcover, illustrated book, BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears.  Part music-bio and part analysis, this new book is a thorough exploration of BTS's approach to music in the age of globalization, as this super boy band has brought Korean music to the world.  Focusing on the members, the music, and the fans, Tamar Herman brings forth the extraordinary story of these young K-pop idols:  Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, V, Jimin and Jungkook to life as they transcend the limitations of language, geography, and genre in a way not seen since, perhaps, The Beatles.

THE LOWDOWN:  Author Tamar Herman starts her book, BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears, with an informative “Intro” and  first chapter, “BTS Meets the World.”  In Chapter 1 is a crucial subsection, entitled “What is K-Pop?”  Herman uses this essay to inform the readers about the basics of “K-pop,” including that it is more of a brand than a genre of music.

As such, Herman explains how BTS has used songwriting to distinguish itself within the brand.  Two members of the group were already writing songs before joining BTS.  With other members writing songs plus a dedicated team of songwriters, the group has been able to evolve its songs and sound.  Through their own songwriting, BTS produces music and performances that rally against societal norms, express poetic ideas of romance, and praise self-acceptance in the face of adversity.  Being involved in the songwriting also allows BTS to stand out both within K-pop and within the larger, crowded, global music scene.

Overall, this book has over 80 photographic images, most of them color and many of them oversize.  Herman goes into exacting detail about BTS's collaborators, and she breaks down the group's albums, song-by-song.  Herman puts such effort into talking about BTS's music that this book, BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears, is as much a reference book as it is an overview of the band's public life to date.

It is through Tamar Herman's analysis of the who, what, when, and how, as well as the analysis of the music that BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears stands out as a serious book about a group that is serious about its music, it performances, and its public face.  BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears is a thorough exploration of an extraordinary musical act and is certainly not some thrown-together paperback looking to make a quick buck off BTS's fame.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of BTS who are looking for a book that will take them inside BTS and its music will want BTS: Blood Sweat & Tears.

https://www.viz.com/viz-media
https://www.tamarherman.com/
https://twitter.com/TamarWrites
https://www.instagram.com/tamarwrites/

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.


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THE CONTENDER: The Story of Marlon Brando (Negromancer Book Review)

THE CONTENDER: THE STORY OF MARLON BRANDO
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins @HarperBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: William J. Mann – @WilliamJMann
ISBN: 978-0-06-242764-9; hardcover (October 15, 2019)
736pp, B&W, $35.00 U.S.

Who is Marlon Brando?  Some would, will, and will always tell you that he was and is the greatest American film actor of all time.  Marlon Brando won two Academy Awards, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront (1954) and again for his performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972).  His performance as Terry Malloy is considered the performance that changed film-acting in American motion pictures.

Marlon Brando the Hollywood legend was born Marlon Brando Jr. on April 3, 1924 to Dorothy Julia “Dodie” (Pennebaker) and Marlon Brando Sr. in Omaha, Nebraska.  He grew up in Libertyville, Illinois (where he met Wally Cox, an actor who would be a lifelong friend), and even attended a military school.  But who was Marlon Brando?

The award-winning film biographer, William J. Mann (Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn), presents a deeply-textured, ambitious, and definitive portrait of Marlon Brando.  The greatest movie actor of the twentieth century was also elusive, and Mann brings his extraordinarily complex life into view as never before in the biography, The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando.

The most influential movie actor of his era, Marlon Brando changed the way other actors perceived their craft.  His natural, honest, and deeply personal approach to acting resulted in performances, especially in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, that are considered to be without parallel.  Americans hailed Brando as the “American Hamlet.”  He was the Yank who surpassed Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, and Ralph Richardson, the holy trinity and the royalty of British stage and screen, as the standard of greatness in mid-twentieth century acting.

Brando’s impact on American culture, however, went beyond acting.  He was was also one of the first American movie stars to use his fame as a platform to address social, political, and moral issues, and he courageously and boldly called out the United States' deeply rooted, persistent racism.

The Contender illuminates this cultural icon for a new age, and Mann, its author, argues that Brando was not only a great actor, but also a cultural soothsayer.  Mann reveals that Brando was a Cassandra warning America about the challenges to come.  Brando’s admonitions against making financial gain the primary purpose of nearly every aspect of the nation's culture, and his criticisms that the news media's obsession with celebrity and other shallow and ultimately unimportant subjects were prescient.  Many public figures, from fellow Hollywood actors to politicians and media figures, criticized Brando's public protests against racial segregation and discrimination at the height of the Civil Rights movement. Yet less than half a century later, Brando's actions as an activist and an advocate have become the model many actors follow today.

In The Contender, William J. Mann shows the sides of Marlon Brando that many moviegoers never imagined him to have.  From his childhood traumas to the evolution of his professional life and the growing mess of his personal life, Marlon Brando is revealed anew.

THE LOWDOWN:  William J. Mann's biography of Marlon Brando is a story that runs over 600 pages.  That is not counting the section entitled “Marlon Brando Stage and Television Credits;” a two-page “Sources” section; and a 60-page “Notes” section.  Mann's The Contender is not only “psychologically astute” as the book's press materials state; it is also painstakingly and masterfully researched.  Mann's research is based on new material, previously revealed material, and interviews with the people who knew Marlon Brando, some of whom died during the time Mann worked on this book.

Mann's book is not a Hollywood tell-all, nor is it a celebratory festival of Brando's work.  The Contender explores the man that Brando was, and being a ground-breaking, celebrated, and revered actor was only part of the man.  To that end, The Contender and its author told me things that I did not know about Brando.  I did not know that he was “sexually fluid,” having sexual relationships with both men and women.  I did not know that he was a hopeless philanderer and womanizer; Brando cheated on every woman he dated or was married to – often with multiple women.

I did not know that Brando did not consider acting to be something important.  He certainly had a fidelity to his vocation, as seen in his numerous performances on film, but he did not take the profession seriously.  He did not tolerate people whom he believed took acting too seriously.

I had no idea that Brando supported human rights causes for African-Americans and supported the Civil Rights movement, both financially and in person, up to the time of his death.  He participated in numerous marches, including some in the American south.  Brando was also a participant in the 1963 “March on Washington.”  Brando was also a vocal and tireless advocate for Native Americans, which including him declining his best actor Oscar for The Godfather at the 45th Academy Awards on March 27, 1973 in protest of the way the U.S. had treated American Indians.

It is not so much that Mann tells Brando's story in vivid detail, which he does.  It is also that Mann uses his prose to transport readers back to the times and places of many key moments in Brando's life.  Mann puts us there, right next to his subject, and the result is the story that makes you think and feel the man, his life, and his times.  This is a big book for a monumental figure in American culture.  The Contender is a dazzling biography, the kind befitting our nation's greatest actor.

It took me forever to read this biography – seven months.  By the time, I finished, however, I wished there were more.  The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando is for all time the biography for Marlon Brando fans and admirers, present and future.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans and students of Hollywood films and of Marlon Brando will want to read The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando.

[The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando includes sixteen pages of photographs.]

8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://williamjmann.com/
https://twitter.com/WilliamJMann

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The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: BECOMING RICHARD PRYOR

BECOMING RICHARD PRYOR
HARPCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Scott Saul
ISBN: 978-0-06-212330-5; hardcover (December 9, 2014)
608pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

Richard Pryor (1940 to 2005) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and filmmaker.  He was best known for his work as a stage comic or stand-up comedian.  Actor and comedian Bob Newhart once called Pryor “the seminal comedian of the last 50 years.”

Becoming Richard Pryor is a biography of Pryor, written by Scott Saul.  Saul, an associate professor of English at the University of California–Berkeley, is the author of Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties.  Saul has also written for Harper's Magazine, the New York Times, and the Nation, among other publications.

In the “Author's Note” to his book, Saul says that “Pryor revolutionized American comedy with his improvisational approach, his frank talk about sex and race, and the new psychological depth that he brought to the stage.”  One of the groundbreaking things about Pryor's comedy was that it was often autobiographical; the genius and complexities of his act was born from the story of his life.

Saul says that “For all his openness about his life onstage, he [Pryor] was guarded about the facts of it offstage.”  Pryor was standoffish with reporters, and, according to Saul, both Pryor and his elder relatives did what they could to make things difficult for people seeking to write biographies of Pryor.

Saul also describes how Becoming Richard Pryor is different from previous biographies and biographical efforts concerning Pryor.  First, Richard and the elder Pryor were dead by the time Saul began his research for this book in 2007.  [Pyror died in 2006.]  Also, the younger Pryor relatives were willing to share memories, pictures, papers, and other documentations with Saul.  Secondly, Saul says that he approached Pryor as a “historical figure,” so he used a “historian's tools” like research paperwork, and official documents to reconstruct Pryor's life so that he could “unpack its meaning.”  Saul writes that by working like a historian, he was able to follow Pryor's life from month to month, and, in some instances, even day to day.

Thirdly, and finally, Saul says Becoming Richard Pryor is different because its aim is to “... trace, meticulously, Pryor's evolution as an artist.”  Saul traces this evolution up to the point of the release of Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), which may be the most celebrated, if not greatest stand-up comedy performance and comedy concert film of all time.  Saul is right:  Live in Concert (by influence, inspiration, and homage) may have created more stand-up comics (both good and bad) than any other film in history.

So how is Becoming Richard Pryor?  Is it any good.  Is it interesting?  I am reluctant to call Becoming Richard Pryor “fascinating,” as that word seems inadequate to describe either Saul's book or his subject, Richard Pryor.  I know it sounds crazy considering that Becoming Richard Pryor is built on so many words – over 600 pages densely packed with words, but words don't really describe this book.  Becoming Richard Pryor has to be experienced directly by a reader, to be read in order to truly understand the depth of detail by which Saul tells the story of Pryor.

In fact, the story begins decades before Pryor was born (as Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor on December 1, 1940), so that Saul can talk about Pryor's beloved paternal grandmother, His “Mama,” Maria Carter Bryant – later Maria Pryor.  Saul also goes into details about Pyror's relatives' lives before Pryor was born in 1940.  Later, Saul takes us through a journey of Pryor growing up and becoming a budding performer as a child.  Then, he takes us through Pryor's travels as his learned, gathered, and constantly evolved.

It is a long journey to Richard Pryor: Live in Concert.  As big as this book, it is shocking to consider that Saul does not follow Pyror's life and career into the 1980s, when he experienced his greatest financial success as a film actor and movie star.  The 1980s also marked the beginning of Pryor's battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).  That battle along with Pryor's death on December 20, 2005 are discussed in the book's epilogue.

I am glad Scott Saul used the epilogue to discuss that last quarter century of Pryor's life.  What Saul presents is so grand in scope and so intimately and realistically detailed that I don't think I could read much more.  Becoming Richard Pryor is a great Hollywood biography and a masterfully work of history about an important figure in American arts and culture.

Is Becoming Richard Pryor a must read?  Well, as Pryor himself might say, “Hell yeah, m**********r!  So fans and students of American comedy, of American film, and of African-American arts and entertainment must read Becoming Richard Pryor.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Shohreh Aghdashloo's Dazzling Memoir

THE ALLEY OF LOVE AND YELLOW JASMINES
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Shohreh Aghdashloo
ISBN: 978-0-06-200980-7; hardcover (June 4, 2013)
288pp, B&W with 8-page color photo insert, $26.99 U.S.

Shohreh Aghdashloo is an Iranian-American actress. She is probably best known for the Oscar nomination she earned as “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” for portraying Nadereh “Nadi” Behrani, the wife of Ben Kingsley’s Colonel Behrani in the 2003 film, House of Sand and Fog (76th Academy Awards). In 2009, Aghdashloo won the Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie” for portraying Sajida Khairallah Talfah in the BBC/HBO miniseries, House of Saddam (2008).

Superhero fans may remember Aghdashloo for portraying Dr. Kavita Rao in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). In the film, Dr. Rao is a scientist working at Worthington Labs on the “mutant cure,” an inoculation (or shot) that will suppress the X-gene that gives mutants their abilities and makes them different from other humans.

Now, Shohreh Aghdashloo is sharing her journey from a childhood in Iran to the red carpets of Hollywood in her new memoir, The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines. The actress tells stories of family, faith, revolution, and hope.

She was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar on May 11, 1952 and grew up in affluent Tehran in the 1950s and 60s. However, Shohreh begins her story on Sunday, February 29, 2004 – the day of the 76th Academy Award ceremony. That day and the beginning of the night take up the first chapter, in which Shohreh even tells us about the two big Hollywood stars that snubbed her.

Afterwards, Shohreh, the author and storyteller, returns to her youth. Shohreh dreamed of becoming an actress, despite her parents’ more practical plans that she study to become a doctor. Shohreh was enchanted by the movies she watched while growing up in affluent Tehran in the 1950s and 60s. She fell in love and married her husband, Aydin Aghdashloo, a painter twelve years her senior and from whom she got her professional name. Shohreh made him promise he’d allow her to follow her passion.

The first years of their marriage were magical, as Shohreh began to build a promising acting career on screen and stage. Meanwhile, Aydin worked at the royal offices as an art director, exhibited his paintings in Tehran, and collected calligraphy. However, in 1979, revolution swept Iran, toppling the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s regime and installing an Islamic republic ruled by the former exiled cleric, Ayatollah Khomeini. Shohreh, alarmed by the stifling new restrictions on women and art, decided to escape the new regime and her home country. She began a journey that would eventually lead her to Los Angeles, to a new home, to a new family, and finally to the Hollywood career of which she’d always dreamed.

The most surprising thing about The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines is how well-written it is, and I say that because the tale Shohreh Aghdashloo tells is occasionally mesmerizing. Shohreh the acclaimed actress becomes Shohreh the acclaimed author with this dazzling effort. Not every celebrity can pull off a well-written opinion piece, let alone an entire book. Is there anything that has come out of Charles Barkley and Bill O’Reilly’s mouths that makes you think they are actually articulate and literate enough to have written the books credited to them?

Shohreh’s prose is impressive and especially vivid. Readers will imagine that they are experiencing the sights, sounds, and sensations Shohreh describes, as if her memories are also their memories. Speaking personally, when Shohreh wrote of her time as a young fashion model, her words made my imagination work to envision the clothes and fashions she wore so many decades ago.

Iran comes to life for me as it never has before, because I was seeing a place where people lived and not as an enemy state, which is how Iran is so often portrayed in Western media. I think the most important thing, however, is that the reader comes to feel and to understand Shohreh Aghdashloo’s desire to be an artist and an actor.

I do think that Shohreh is vague in some spots. She really only scratches at the surface of her political and social activism. It is almost as if it is something she does not want to hide, yet is forced to leave out details in some instances.

Shohreh is relatively unknown to American audience, even with her success. The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines, this book written in such a dazzling and colorful manner, will make you want to know her. This is one book written by an actor about her life that is certainly worth reading.

Readers of actors’ memoirs must have The Alley of Love and Yellow Jasmines.

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Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux