Instinctively I assumed the topic of Brooks was too light for McGilligan but then when you think about it more it isn't - Brooks has had one of the great careers spanning over half a century and incorporating many key cultural moments: the 2000 year old man, Sid Caesar, The Producers, Gene Wilder, Blazing Saddles etc. He won two Oscars in the 60s and has won a bunch of awards.
James Parish wrote a biography on him which was fine, but brief and he's not in McGilligan's class as a biographer. McGilligan does a typically superb job of tracing Brooks' history and the fact he's unauthorised means this depiction can be very warts and all. Brooks was a terrible husband to his first wife (he was moody, abused her, hit her, cheated on her, stinged her out of child support and alimony), was a credit hog, had a bad temper, was tight with the buck. On the positive side he was brilliantly funny, a great salesman, turned out some terrific dramas as producer (including My Favourite Year), was incredibly tenacious. To come back and conquer Broadway with The Producers is incredible.
The book is exhaustive- indeed it felt as though it could have done with an edit. Did we need all those reviews and information about financial deals and in dept accounts of the making of Dracula Dead and Loving It?
I loved how McGilligan loved Spaceballs. He mentions in the afterword that he's never encountered more people scared to go on the record than with this book - even more than his Clint Eastwood book. After reading about Brooks' anger I can understand why.
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