Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent by Anthony Rapp Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
Book Review: This Book is Amazing!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are a fan of RENT or Anthony Rapp, you will love this book! Even if you've never heard of either of them, read this book. It is honest and heart-felt. It will truely touch you. It touched me!Book Review: A MUST Have for Fans of Rent!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had never gotten to see Anthony Rapp in Rent until the movie came out and it was great to finally see him as Mark. Rapp's book is wonderful and touching. It's very well written and made me respect Anthony Rapp even more for what he's done in his life and how he's managed to stay true to himself and stand up for everything he believes.
If you like Anthony Rapp or love Rent, you should definitely read this book! I very highly recommend it!
Book Review: A Memoir of True Spirit
Summary: 5 Stars
While reading the first page of Without You, I thought the book was going to contain mostly Anthony Rapp's memories and experiences with Rent. I was wrong. And I delighted in it.
Being a Rent fan for 8 years, I was delighted that I was going to get to know about Anthony's life. And that's what you get here. His ups and downs, his struggles and his accomplishments, Anthony's most intimate thoughts and experiences are here.
What's the most touching about Anthony Rapp is his honesty given in this book. After reading, I was amazed to see a man who is so comfortable in his own skin be able to write about what he did. He put his heart on his shoulder for all to see.
Aside from this being his autobiography, I also see it being a dedication to two people. One of those being Rent's creator Jonathon Larson. It was heartbreaking yet inspirational to see how - from Anthony's point of view - Jonathon affected so many people around him. The other dedication had to be to Anthony's mother. His devotion to her was so relatable and tender, and in each page that dealt with his mother you could feel the love Anthony had for her.
In addition to being an autobiography and a dedication, Anthony also gives inspiration and open arms to anyone dealing with the situations he has dealt with in the past.
I truly have never been so moved by an autobiography. Anthony's soul shines through here. And at the end of the book, I closed it with a smile and teary eyes. I don't know why. It just amazed me at how much emotion and soul this man gave.
Book Review: Difficult to put down
Summary: 5 Stars
Great book! I loved the style. The flashbacks developed the story wonderfully. I was amazed that this was Anthony's first book. It moved me to tears several times. I believe two of those incidents were on the SUBWAY! Anthony gets extra credit for getting me to show emotion in public :)
I took exception to some comments expressing disappointment that this book was too light on RENT content. I don't think that's very fair. I'm a huge RENT fan myself, but this is an autobiography. It reads true to the title - "...A Memoir of Life, Love, and the Musical RENT". It was amazing to read insights about the development of RENT from a cast member that was there from the workshop days all the way through its tremendous success. However, the book was really about Anthony Rapp's life. RENT was only a part of the whole picture, naturally.
I absolutely loved getting to know Anthony. He lets the reader in on very personal moments in his past. The honesty and raw emotion are truly refreshing.
Unfortunately, shortly after I finished this book, my cat peed on it. I wish I were joking, but that's why it's on my wishlist! I want to read it again and this is not one I'd be satisfied to borrow.
Write us another one, Anthony!
Book Review: Anthony Rapp's Evolution
Summary: 4 Stars
I loved this book. There. That's out of the way. So any criticism that follows has now been properly qualified.
So I bought this book, like so many others, because of its promise to take us behind the scenes of Rent, riding along with someone who has been with the show nearly from its conception. Anthony Rapp is a person who knew and worked with Jonathan Larson, so I fully expected to be treated to glimpses of their many interactions, etc. Well, I would say that, although there is a lot of material that focuses on the earliest versions of the play, there is very little material that deals with the show's creator or, in fact, any of the creative process at all. I think that little factoid is important for anyone who might be considering buying this book with that particular expectation in mind.
Instead, what this book does focus on are the very personal experiences of one of the lead players, Anthony Rapp. It is not an autobiography but, rather, it is a memoir - and it is written very much like one. If you took your personal journal and turned it into a novel, this would be the result. So, where does that leave the reader? Well, Mr. Rapp does a very nice job of telling his audience what it's like to be a cast member of an unknown musical that turns into a smash hit. He takes us through his audition, through opening night, and through all of his experiences along the road to becoming more and more popular. But the book tells us much more than that...
Interspersed between the pages filled with Rent, the author tells us of another very personal experience that was going on in his life at the time - the long illness and ultimate untimely death of his mother. Through this struggle, Mr. Rapp also spills out about his very open life as a gay man, and of his relationships with his boyfriends, and of his insecurities with his family, and on and on. The way in which he intertwines these feelings with his experiences with Rent keeps us interested and engaged, and allows him to tell us the otherwise uninteresting story of his life. This is not meant to be a negative comment, just that, let's face it, if he were not part of the cast of Rent, nobody would really care about his homosexual experiences or his family's illnesses, or anything else about him. In fact, there is really nothing unique about what he has gone through. But, by brilliantly weaving these stories with his somewhat more interesting stories about Rent, we somehow seem to care about what he has to say. And that's probably a good thing.
So, the good and the bad: The good is that Mr. Rapp invites us into his life and gives people something to relate to. And if you canot relate, then you are somehow educated. For example, his earliest homosexual relationships are not something that I can personally relate to, but I am glad to have been introduced to what he went through and how comfortable he is with himself. On the other hand, his experiences with his dying mother is something that many of us have gone through, but he tells the story and evokes feelings that are spot-on. And, through this, we can relate and feel his emotion and be comforted by the fact that we are not alone. Overall, I would say that the book is very rewarding in these aspects.
Now, for the bad: There are a few things that I will mention here. The first is that the front half of the book is very heavily loaded with Rent, but the back half is much less so. It is a good technique to draw readers into what he wants them to hear, but it also comes off as a little deceptive - especially when the logo of Rent is plastered all over the cover of the book. I was certainly hoping for a little more than his personal diary in this respect, given the way in which the book is advertised. The second problem is the way in which Mr. Rapp, as a central charater, changes throughout the course of the book. In the beginning, because of the overwhelming focus on Rent, Mr. Rapp comes off as being humble, sweet, and likeable. But, as the book goes on, we begin to see him as self-absorbed, self-indulgent, preachy, and overly dramatic. Maybe that's what really happened to him over that period of time. But I suspect that this does not represent a true transformation of character but, rather, a reflection of the subject matter about which he writes - which, as I stated earlier, shifts drastically as the book progresses onward. I personally did not like the way I felt about the author when I put the book down, half as much as I liked the way I felt about him when I picked the book up. This is probably not such a good thing.
The last issue I have with the book is that it focuses entirely too much around a fairly narrow window of the author's life. He references his childhood acting experiences many times, but never takes us through that process or through that time in his life. In fact, the only childhood experiences that he chooses to focus on completely are those which relate to his realizing that he is gay. I guess it is his choice to decide what he will reveal to us, but I would have personally liked to have known more about his progression toward becoming an actor and an artist.
OK, so I've said all that I wanted to say. But, again, let me clarify the point that I really did enjoy this book. In fact, I couldn't put it down. The writing is heartfelt and, I think, rather good, and the story is captivating enough to hold our attention. And, that in and of itself is a testament to this book because, in reality, the author is not introducing us to any really new experiences. He has just found a way to make us care about his life. And I think that is a tremendous feat.