Me and Orson Welles

by Robert Kaplow | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0143117122 Global Overview for this book
Registered by geishabird of Toronto, Ontario Canada on 2/5/2010
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by geishabird from Toronto, Ontario Canada on Wednesday, December 8, 2010
In 1937 the world was preparing for war, but Richard Samuels, a 17-year-old in suburban New Jersey, was preparing himself for the role of a lifetime. All his life he had wanted to be on the stage, and one day he wandered onto a set in the theater district, where a chance encounter changed his life forever. There Richard met the 22-year-old Orson Welles, who offered him a bit part in a bold new interpretation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. When Welles was not directing the play, he was busy being famous, womanizing, and boozing. The awestruck Richard saw this as his own chance to leap to fame, with Welles as his mentor. The theater, however, quickly jades even the youngest of participants, and when the megolomaniacal Welles casts his eye on the woman with whom Richard himself had fallen in love, all hell breaks loose.

This isn't a bad idea for a story, but Kaplow isn't a good enough writer to make this into the charming book that it could have been. It's weighed down by heavy-handed dialogue and forced comedic scenes, and although there are a some interesting bits scattered here and there, it's a bit tiresome overall. If I wasn't such a big Orson Welles fan I probably wouldn't have been interested enough to finish this book. A good try, but not good enough.

Journal Entry 2 by geishabird at Corner of Bayview & Eglinton in Toronto, Ontario Canada on Friday, December 10, 2010

Released 13 yrs ago (12/9/2010 UTC) at Corner of Bayview & Eglinton in Toronto, Ontario Canada

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Released as part of the "What's In A Name?" challenge.

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