Still foolin' 'em
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Average rating4
"Billy Crystal is turning 65, and he's not happy about it. With his trademark wit and heart, he outlines the absurdities and challenges that come with growing old, from insomnia to memory loss to leaving dinners with half your meal on your shirt. In humorous chapters like "Buying the Plot" and "Nodding Off," Crystal not only catalogues his physical gripes, but offers a road map to his 77 million fellow baby boomers who are arriving at this milestone age with him. He also looks back at the most powerful and memorable moments of his long and storied life, from entertaining his relatives as a kid in Long Beach, Long Island, his years doing stand-up in the Village, up through his legendary stint at Saturday Night Live, When Harry Met Sally, and his long run as host of the Academy Awards. Readers get a front-row seat to his one-day career with the New York Yankees (he was the first player to ever "test positive for Maalox"), his love affair with Sophia Loren, and his enduring friendships with several of his idols, including Mickey Mantle and Muhammad Ali. He lends a light touch to more serious topics like religion ("the aging friends I know have turned to the Holy Trinity: Advil, bourbon, and Prozac"), grandparenting, and, of course, dentistry. As wise and poignant as they are funny, Crystal's reflections are an unforgettable look at an extraordinary life well lived"--
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I have read/listened to a number of celebrity autobiographies. I have started to see a pattern. Make yourself sound like an ordinary person, talk about your childhood struggles, begin to elaborate on your success. Make yourself sound humble. Share your worldly advice. Talk about the struggles of aging in hollywood/friends getting sick. You are now blessed with superior wisdom.
Ok, maybe that's a little unfair. I actually enjoyed Billy Crystal's book. Some parts strongly followed the celebrity autobiography pattern, but his book is filled with some great one liners that had me laughing aloud. I also learned about another side of America that I rarely encounter. Prejudice. I had no idea that you could be dismissed from a golf course just because you were Jewish. Really!? Muhammed Ali could golf there, but Billy Crystal couldn't because he was Jewish?.... It was extremely eye opening.
The book had some slow parts, but had some great moments too. I think what gets me about these autobiographies is that the celebrities feel they need to put their entire lives into their books. I'd must rather have a more focused look at a certain time frame in their lives. (Ex: As You Wish by Cary Elwes focuses on his time filming the Princess Bride with some guest narration from the cast. This was a fantastic book because it was more focused. That's what I wish some of these celebrity books were like). Aside from that, this was still a strong audiobook and in my top 1/4 of celebrity autobiography books.
