Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper
by Gypsy Rose Lee

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Book Reviews of Gypsy: Memoirs of America's Most Celebrated Stripper

Book Review: One of the most entertaining autobiographies ever.
Summary: 4 Stars

The book is written in a snappy, witty, anecdotal style, which is perfect for Lee's endless supply of anecdotes. Spending her childhood in an endless round of theaters, trains, cars, and cheap hotels, meeting an endless number of incredible characters. Actors, mountebanks, con artists, carnies, all seen through the eyes of a bright and observant child, and recounted by a witty adult with a talent for storytelling.

The book is deeply personal as well. This is THE classic ugly-duckling story as well as the quintessential book about vaudeville in its last days. Gypsy/Louise was very much the "other" child until she was fifteen, her little sister was blonde, pretty, talented, and The Star. While Dainty June was getting thousands a week as a vaudeville headliner Louse was ignored, used in the chorus and otherwise pretty much forgotten by her mother and everyone else. Even she wondered if she would ever by any good at anything, even though she was so bright that she educated herself fabulously with nothing more to work with than a little trunk space for books. Everything changed when June ran away to get married at age thirteen (a story told in her own book "Early Havoc", a good read) at the same time that vaudeville was dying out. It's here that Mama Rose revealed the depth of her obsession with stardom, trying to make her seemingly plain, talentless, and ungainly daughter a star in a medium that no longer existed. The truly amazing thing is that she succeeded, although not the way she intended.

All in all a fine read, a real-life comedy, the chronicle of a bygone era and vanished world, and the story of an ugly ducking becoming the most glamorous of swans.

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