Saturday, June 13, 2020

Book review - "Apropos of Nothing" by Woody Allen

Still digesting this. It's long. Fascinating. Some of it's great. Some of it is off putting. Random thoughts:
- nice to read him paying tribute to people who helped him (eg Danny Simon and other random writers, Jack Rollings) - does he similarly mentor other people
- excellent accounts of growing up in Brooklyn and his family
- interesting on his influences eg Tennessee Williams, Kaufman and Hart, SJ Perelman Bob Hope
- Louise Lasser section is especially fascinating 
- his putting himself down gets a bit wearying - after a while it's like "alright already" especially has he overdoes the self depecation at times
- his greatest achievement is rescuing Soo Yi from her life of servitude apparently (Mia didn't take her to one show or museum!)... couldn't he have just said it was meeting her
 - for someone who says he hardly dated actresses he seems to talk about the ones he dates a lot eg Louise Lasser,  Mia Farrow, Diane Keaton, Jessica Harper, Stacey Nelkin
- he constantly talks about how he's on good terms with all his exes except Farrow
- he hammers Farrow.
It's an odd book.  I'm still processing how I feel about it.

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