Liberace: An American Boy Summary and Reviews

Liberace: An American Boy
by Darden Asbury Pyron

Liberace: An American Boy
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Book Summary Information

Author: Darden Asbury Pyron
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06-01
ISBN: 0226686698
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press

Book Reviews of Liberace: An American Boy

Book Review: A Thousand Words in Search of an Editor
Summary: 1 Stars

One of the more incoherent biographies of recent times, this tract begins with the flaw of wanting to be metaphorical. Wally Liberace was an enjoyable high-camp entertainer, who appeared at a time when you could cause controversy wearing white tails in a classical recital. The author takes a wildly discursive journey through post-war America, trying to draw curious parallels with the entertainer's career (and hookum Cluade Bristol philosophy, which extolled mind mastery to overcome every problem including physical disability), and America's own story of upward mobility and unlimited opportunity for anyone with a dream. A writer with better judgement would have not over reached but simply told this as the story of an ambitious entertainer who made it big by offering class to people with little taste during a time of post-war austerity, then parlayed this into visual controversy ("topping himself" with ever greater extravagance) after the initial novelty wore off. The prose is choked with philosophical discursion and rhetorical questions, none of which are developed or answered, which belong in an undergraduate tutorial on identity theory. At one point, the narrative stops as the author conducts a tail chasing exposition on sexual identity that goes on for several pages. What a competent prose stylist could have said in a brief chapter goes on for dozens of pages. Like his subject, the wordsmith seems more intent on putting on a show than providing a coherent narrative. This book won't shed much light on the club career before the television series, how the performer created the act and the personae, and is silent about the attempt by management to turn him into a bandleader at one stage.
To the unwary, this big, imposing book might look like it offers a substantial, even definitive account. Don't be fooled.

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