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Jimmy Dean Prepares
This is a novel crafted with a biographer's knowledge and the love of the subject. Sam Toperoff recreates the life of James Dean, using actual events as a basis for understanding. The result is a genuinely original take on the life of an icon.
Paperback
First published May 19, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 8, 2022
I enjoyed this quirky read. Sold as a novel but it feels more like a biography in which Toperoff gets into the soul of Jimmy D. I now want to read a biography of JD but fear after this I'll be disappointed.
July 8, 2007
This is a novel which presents the inner life of James Dean. It focuses largely on Dean's artistic sincerity. We see he is ambitious. We see he is iconoclastic. But where this book departs from most works about Dean, be they fiction or biography, is in the depiction of his belief in himself as an actor.
James Dean's life was so sensational and his image is so iconic that thinking of him as an artist is almost taboo. The title JIMMY DEAN PREPARES is a reference to Stanislavski's book AN ACTOR PREPARES. The title is well chosen also because the theme of the book is the struggle of an actor to be an artist. It is not about James Dean's outer life, although there are external events. He is radical, but so is the Method.
The James Dean in this work is unquestionably bisexual. Not a closeted gay man, nor a heterosexual sleeping with men in order to climb the Hollywood ladder.
This is about an artist who happens to be an honest man. There are a lot of books about the legend James Dean. This is a novel about James Dean the actor.
James Dean's life was so sensational and his image is so iconic that thinking of him as an artist is almost taboo. The title JIMMY DEAN PREPARES is a reference to Stanislavski's book AN ACTOR PREPARES. The title is well chosen also because the theme of the book is the struggle of an actor to be an artist. It is not about James Dean's outer life, although there are external events. He is radical, but so is the Method.
The James Dean in this work is unquestionably bisexual. Not a closeted gay man, nor a heterosexual sleeping with men in order to climb the Hollywood ladder.
This is about an artist who happens to be an honest man. There are a lot of books about the legend James Dean. This is a novel about James Dean the actor.
May 21, 2009
Sam Toperoff has an uncanny imagination and brings James Dean back to life in his full youthful glory. I read this book so long ago but it's one of those which has stayed with me. I hope to go back to it again. He really gives you a look at how James Dean grew as an actor in New York before going out to California. We get a glimpse of his relationships,passion and sadness.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews