The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi Swayze Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Time of My Life
Book Review: A Life of Passion
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife was a big Swayze fan. With that in mind, I bought her this book for Christmas and we spent the holidays reading it out loud to each other. To my surprise, I realized I was more a Swayze fan than I realized, with his movies Red Dawn, Road House, Point Break, and City of Joy. Together, my wife and I laughed, got misty-eyed, and discovered more about this memorable man.
In the opening pages, Patrick and Lisa give intimate looks into their reasons for writing the book. Their love for each other is clear, and it's a rare example of faithfulness on the Hollywood landscape. From their early courtship, Patrick's struggle with bullies (as he danced and wore tights), and their later collaboration as actors, dancers, and choreographers, it's a beautiful story. Although the ghostwriter (assuming there was one) is sloppy in the narrative, the book reads quickly, and we gain new glimpses into this couple's many years in the film industry.
Patrick and Lisa's passion for dance, movies, and each other comes through every page. I'm sure the paperback version will include the final details of Patrick's passing, but this was a pleasant way to remember him in the months after his death.
Book Review: A Wonderful Life
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a long time fan of Patrick Swayze, but knew little about his wife, Lisa, other than they had met at Patrick's mother's dance studio. Reading this book made me feel like I was part of the family - Patrick and Lisa opened their entire lives to the public. As I read each chapter, I could feel the deep love and support they had for each other. My prayers are with Lisa now - to continue with the ranch they both loved so much... and hopefully to see more of her either on the stage, or directing.
Thank you for this chance to know an amazing couple.
Book Review: A good glimpse at what it's like to have an artist's personality
Summary: 3 Stars
I've savored every performance I've ever seen of Patrick Swayze's, and I was looking forward to experiencing a candid,in-depth sharing of his enduring and faithful romance with Lisa Niemi.
Patrick and his wife Lisa shared a powerful meeting of the minds, a devoted, faithful partnership wherein she helped him evolve each artistic project he ever undertook. She is described as patient, supportive, often selfless,and very talented- an excellent dancer, writer and director, while Patrick , repeatedly, on the ups and downs of his emotional vicissitudes,is,in many cases,painfully obtuse to anyone else's needs, including his own.
The intensity of Swayze's physical pain and their repeated occurrences, endured since his teenage years, is painful to read about;the numerous knee injuries which left him unable to play football and crippled his dream of becoming a principal dancer in a major NY dance company, reveal his endless determination and grit. All his adult life included endless rounds of pain,injections and knee icings, which he bore stoically again and again.Added to this were numerous other injuries sustained during dancing or performing his own stunts, or during horseback riding, one from which he narrowly escaped death.
First with his gymnastic aspirations, then as a ballet artist,singer, and as an actor, He always pushed himself to the maximum of his endurance. No one reading this book could ever feel that he ever gave less than 100% of himself, and that alone is a major achievement. That he adored and depended upon his wife and treasured her, is also quite clear, as well as being loyal to his many friends and animals.
Curiously, though Swayze goes into great detail about every job he ever had, every audition he went to and detailed preparations that went into every one, he fleshes out his movie directors to a far greater degree than he does his own family.
That he virtually says nothing about his brothers or uncles or cousins and nothing about his wife's family, leads me to believe that he must have done so out of respect for their privacy. He says very little about his parents, as well. Although he talks repeatedly about his Mom's dance studio in Texas, her work ethic and perfectionism and how that affected him and his siblings, he never fleshes her out.
Although he lost his stirrups when his father died of a heart attack at the young age of 56,( the same age at which he, himself, died), other than hearing over and over how his dad was a loveable, gentle and accomplished cowboy, there is very little sense of Buddy Swayze the person, and no anecdotes about his parenting skills from Little Buddy Swayze (Patrick)cheering for him in the proverbial stands.His sister's suicide is mentioned almost as an afterthought, even though he felt great guilt about it..
This book is a textbook study into what it is like to have a creative personality:enormous exertions of energy,creativity and effort, interspersed with periods of self-doubt and despondency. At certain times when there was a lull in work, he would become listless. When his dog died, he became extremely depressed, and the death of his father was something from which he never recovered.It is said that the life of an artist is easy; all he has to do is to open his veins and let the blood flow...
This would be a good description of the book, and, if it were not that the writing was quite mediocre,I would have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Book Review: A great love story
Summary: 5 Stars
Patrick Swayze's book tells the good and bad side of the time of his life, including the last two years of his battle with cancer. Even in July he still had hope.
The greatest gift Lisa gave her husband was one more day. She knew the day before about his cancer and didn't tell him.
There's many stories about there love and seperations over his drinking,and there heartbreak over never having children .I also loved the many pictures,alot of them in color .
The Time of my life "is a great love story between Patrick and Lisa so few of us have.
Book Review: A honest story of a guy with faults, ambition and loves...
Summary: 4 Stars
Patrick Swazye was no professional writer, but he felt like neighbor talking to you. I expected this book to be about being diagnosed with a disease, instead it was about a man analyzing his life and looking at his accomplishments. There was no memorable lines, but a time with a guy who gambled on fame with confidence and dedication.