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Duke: The story of John Wayne
John Wayne’s story.
149 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1971
1 person want to read
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July 6, 2023
As far as I’m concerned, the quality of a biography or autobiography is determined by it’s honesty and the degree to which it tells the reader the whole story.
I believe a great piece of work in this genre acts as a great big spotless window that offers unobstructed views into a person’s life. The best ones have the best visibility. The author shouldn’t cast the person in a flattering light. In fact, there needn’t be any lighting at all, save natural lighting.
Otherwise, to foster the analogy, the window grows messy blotches that hide parts of the story, inevitably skewing the readers’ understanding of the person.
In these cases, the understanding a reader is left with is not aligned with the actual person, but rather some glamorized variation. A variation of a person that never actually existed.
Therefore it’s vital that biographies and autobiographies be honest and in the truest sense of the word. Otherwise the reader is just being had.
That, to me, is what makes a 5 star book in this genre.
If this book were to do that, it would, in a platonic sense, need to harness the forum of John Wayne, flatten it, and shape it to fit the pages of a book. With that as the bar, this book falls well short of that.
This is a 3 star book. It smoothes many edges, glosses over rough patches, and paints blue into overcast skies.
This window into John Wayne’s life certainly has it’s blotchy spots. Still, at the end of the day it still tells you a lot about the man they called “Duke” and, at least for me, it helped ignite a desire to watch some of his great works.
I believe a great piece of work in this genre acts as a great big spotless window that offers unobstructed views into a person’s life. The best ones have the best visibility. The author shouldn’t cast the person in a flattering light. In fact, there needn’t be any lighting at all, save natural lighting.
Otherwise, to foster the analogy, the window grows messy blotches that hide parts of the story, inevitably skewing the readers’ understanding of the person.
In these cases, the understanding a reader is left with is not aligned with the actual person, but rather some glamorized variation. A variation of a person that never actually existed.
Therefore it’s vital that biographies and autobiographies be honest and in the truest sense of the word. Otherwise the reader is just being had.
That, to me, is what makes a 5 star book in this genre.
If this book were to do that, it would, in a platonic sense, need to harness the forum of John Wayne, flatten it, and shape it to fit the pages of a book. With that as the bar, this book falls well short of that.
This is a 3 star book. It smoothes many edges, glosses over rough patches, and paints blue into overcast skies.
This window into John Wayne’s life certainly has it’s blotchy spots. Still, at the end of the day it still tells you a lot about the man they called “Duke” and, at least for me, it helped ignite a desire to watch some of his great works.
Displaying 1 of 1 review