The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny
Scott Anderson, 1999
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385486668
Summary
A swashbuckling Texan, a teller of tall tales, a womanizer, and a renegade, Fred Cuny spent his life in countries rent by war, famine, and natural disasters, saving many thousands of lives through his innovative and sometimes controversial methods of relief work.
Cuny earned his nickname "Master of Disaster" for his exploits in Kurdistan, Somalia, and Bosnia. But when he arrived in the rogue Russian republic of Chechnya in the spring of 1995, raring to go and eager to put his ample funds from George Soros to good use, he found himself in the midst of an unimaginably savage war of independence, unlike any he had ever before encountered. Shortly thereafter, he disappeared in the war-rocked highlands, never to be seen again.
Who was Cuny really working for? Was he a CIA spy? Who killed him, and why? In search of the answers, Scott Anderson traveled to Chechnya on a hazardous journey that started as as a magazine assignment and ended as a personal mission. The result is a galvanizing adventure story, a chilling picture of "the new world order," and a tour de force of literary journalism. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1959
• Where—Taiwan and Korea
• Education—did not attend college
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Scott Anderson is an American novelist, journalist, and a veteran war correspondent. He wrote two novels, Triage (1999) and Moonlight Hotel (2006), and five works of nonfiction, most recently, Lawrence in Arabia (2013). He is a frequent contributor to for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire, Men’s Journal, Vanity Fair and other publications.
Anderson grew up in East Asia, primarily in Taiwan and Korea, where his father was an agricultural advisor for the American government. His career began with a 1994 article in Harper's Magazine on the Northern Ireland events. The 2007 movie The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard, is partially based on his work in Bosnia. The 2009 drama film Triage starring Colin Farrell, Paz Vega and Sir Christopher Lee, is based on his novel. Lawrence in Arabia, his latest book, narrates the experiences of T. E. Lawrence in Arabia and explores the complexity of the Middle East.
Anderson currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
GQ article controversy
In a September 2009 issue of GQ, Anderson wrote an article on Putin's role in the Russian apartment bombings, based in part on his interviews with Mikhail Trepashkin. The journal owner, Condé Nast, then took extreme measures to prevent an article by Anderson from appearing in the Russian media, both physically and in translation. According to the NPR, Anderson was asked not to syndicate the article to any Russian publications, but told GQ he would refuse the request.
Non-Fiction
• The 4 O'Clock Murders (1992)
• The Man who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious
Disappearance of an American Hero (1999)
• Inside the League:The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American
Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League
(with Jon Lee Anderson) (1986)
• War Zones (with Jon Lee Anderson) (1988)
• Lawrence in Arabia (2013)
Fiction
• Triage (1999)
• Moonlight Hotel (2006)
(From Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/10/2013).
Book Reviews
Scott Anderson has used the disappearance to write a mystery story, straight out of a plot from a novel by John le Carre, whose Caucasus thriller, Our Game, Cuny happened to be reading when he disappeared. The Man Who Tried to Save the World works best, though, as biography, the story of a man whose youthful ambition to become a Marine pilot was thwarted and who instead turned his energies to helping victims of war. Finally, it is a chronicle of one of the bloodiest conflicts of our times, where Russia's 150-year grip on the Caucasus finally slipped
Richard Beeston - New York Times Book Review
Forget Mount Everest. Forget the perfect storm. For pure adrenaline, there's nothing like the war zone.
Time Out New York
One of the most important books to be published since the fall of the Berlin Wall...A great, epic mystery of our day.
New York Observer
Not even Anderson's intrepid reporting and formidable storytelling skills can bring clarity to the case of Fred Cuny.... [B]y the book's end, when Anderson advances his own theory...readers will be hard-pressed to judge whether it's more plausible than any of the conspiracy theories that precede it. And yet, confronted with a Gordian knot of facts and a succession of unreliable sources, Anderson does an admirable job of searching for the truth in a land that truth forgot.
Publisher Weekly
Anderson helps us distinguish Cuny's "myth" from his remarkable life. In his personal quest to penetrate the "fog of intrigue" surrounding his subject, Anderson delivers a plausible explanation of Cuny's death and reveals the unique terrorism of Russia's Chechnyan war. As a biography, this book begs questions, but as a nonfiction mystery it is gripping. —Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Library Journal
Anderson's assignment to write a newspaper article about Cuny's disappearance turned into a three-year quest to learn the truth about Cuny's amazing, mysterious life. This is an intensely moving portrait of a man who is impossible to pin down.... A fascinating book. —David Pitt
Booklist
A masterful portrait of Fred Cuny.... It's hard to name a major disaster in the last 20 years that didn't find Cuny at the helm of the rescue effort.... Was Cuny a CIA operative? Was he killed by Chechan rebels...? We may never know, but this much is certainly obvious: Cuny was a man whose humanitarian impact cannot be denied and who will be missed.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(The following questions were generously submitted by a LitLover reader and contributor. Many thanks!)
1. At the beginning and end of his narrative Anderson recounts two near death encounters – one at the hands of rebels and one at the hands of Russian troops. They form interesting bookends to the narrative. How do these encounters symbolize everything sandwiched between them? What was different and what was similar about the experiences?
2. He speaks of the “shattered sadness” and “crushing apathy” of those facing death at the hands of another. What reaction does that provoke in you?
3. How would you describe Fred Cuny’s character? What motivated him as a man? Were there any clues in his youth that might explain his passion?
4. How would you respond to his assertion that humanity was inherently good in light of all that he saw and dealt with throughout his career?
5. He left his son for extended periods of time and was never able to maintain a relationship with one woman because of his work and yet he seemed troubled by this. Could he have achieved a better balance in life and still accomplished what he did? What are the trade-offs for such a man?
6. Beginning in Chapter 4 Anderson lists Cuny’s goals that he created around his thirtieth birthday. How realistic were these goals (given his busy life) and did he achieve any of them? Is there a point to making a list of goals (that are perhaps unachievable) like this? If so, what does it accomplish?
7. Would you agree with the author that “life’s disappointments have a way of tempering youthful dreams”? Why, do you think, did they have the opposite effect for Fred Cuny?
8. Why would Cuny have placed the poem to his son in a sealed envelope taped to the back panel of his desk? At what point in time do you think he wrote it?
9. George Soros is introduced as the wealthy financier who bank-rolled much of the relief work that Cuny became involved in. What do you know of Soros and his foundations? What was his motivation for pouring money into these projects?
10. In the era when US foreign policy was to prop up dictators who positioned themselves as ‘Anti-Communist’, how was Cuny’s philosophy of using disasters as a catalyst for social and political reform—his talk of agrarian reform and wealth redistribution—viewed by “The Establishment”?
11. What did you find most remarkable about Cuny’s work in Sarajevo and Kurdistan?
12. What, do you think, drew Cuny to Chechnya in the first place?
13. Relating to Chechnya, Anderson states there are three mistakes you can make:
- That there is any pattern or logic to the conflict.
- That one side is better (more compassionate, less vicious) than the other.
- The belief that you can change things or make a difference.
Was Cuny blinded by his own belief system to the reality of Chechnya?
14. It would appear that the US Administration had an agenda in supporting Boris Yeltsin’s prosecution of the war in Chechnya. What concerns were driving their agenda?
15. While there is no evidence to suggest Cuny’s involvement with the CIA, he seemed to revel in the aura of suspicion that it placed around him. In what way could that have back-fired on him? Is it conceivable that in some way he was willing to pass information back to the CIA on what he saw while on the ground?
16. What do you make of Anderson’s assessment that to the Russians and Chechens, lying was first nature not second nature? Would you agree with his rationale for that statement?
17. Given the events that had recently transpired with his team at the Russian checkpoint and his own apprehensions, what do you think motivated him to go back into Chechnya in general and to Bamut in particular?
18. With all of the disinformation and lies surrounding the disappearance of Cuny and his party, how would you characterize the conclusions reached by Anderson?
19. According to a Wikipedia article, the smart bombs that killed Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Chenchen Rebel leader, were American technology – something the Russians didn’t possess at that time. In what way would it benefit the US Government to assist Yeltsin in eliminating this man?
20. In the afterword (to the 2000 publication), Anderson recounts the rise to power of Vladimir Putin who was responsible for the slaughter of many Chechens during the second Chechen war. He says it is likely that the West will have to deal for many years with Putin who he calls “an extremely cunning leader”. How have you seen that played out over the last decade and a half?
21. In conclusion, how would you sum up the life and work of Fred Cuny?
(Questions developed by a LitLovers contributor.)
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Take This Man: A Memoir
Brando Skyhorse, 2014
Simon & Schuster
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781439170878
Summary
The true story of a boy’s turbulent childhood growing up with five stepfathers and the mother who was determined to give her son everything but the truth.
When he was three years old, Brando Kelly Ulloa was abandoned by his Mexican father. His mother, Maria, dreaming of a more exciting life, saw no reason for her son to live his life as a Mexican just because he started out as one. The life of “Brando Skyhorse,” the American Indian son of an incarcerated political activist, was about to begin.
Through a series of letters to Paul Skyhorse Johnson, a stranger in prison for armed robbery, Maria reinvents herself and her young son as American Indians in the colorful Mexican-American neighborhood of Echo Park, California. There Brando and his mother live with his acerbic grandmother and a rotating cast of surrogate fathers. It will be over thirty years before Brando begins to untangle the truth of his own past, when a surprise discovery online leads him to his biological father at last.
From an acclaimed, prize-winning novelist celebrated for his “indelible storytelling” (O, The Oprah Magazine), this extraordinary literary memoir captures a son’s single-minded search for a father wherever he can find one, and is destined to become a classic. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1973-74
• Where—Los Angeles (Echo Park), California, USA
• Education—B.A., Stanford University; M.F.A., University of
California, Irvine
• Awards—PEN/Hemingway Award; Sue Kaufman Prize (American
Academy of Arts and Letters)
• Currently—lives in Jersey City, New Jersey
Brando Skyhorse grew up in the 1970s and '80s mostly with Vietnamese and Mexican immigrants the Echo Park, section of Los Angeles, California. He channeled those memories into his 2010 novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park.
Skyhorse says he always felt like an outsider in the neighborhood.
I was definitely the nerdy kid with the book bag, with the glasses and the whole thing. I didn't hang out with gangs, or anything. I don't even think I even considered it an option because I wasn't cool enough for that. I wasn't even worthy enough to be hassled by them. I was just totally invisible.
When Skyhorse was three, his father left, and he had a revolving door of stepfathers, never realizing till much older that most of what his mother told him about himself was simply made up, including his name. His mother was so involved in the American Indian movement of the 1970s that she identified herself as Native American even though she was Mexican American.
Corresponding with an American Indian man jailed for armed robbery, she took his last name, Skyhorse, as her own and her son's. She then changed her first name to "Running Deer" and her son's to "Brando" in honor of Marlon Brando's 1970s involvement in Native American activities.
Skyhorse graduated from Stanford University and received his M.F.A. from the writers' program from the University of California at Irvine's writing program. He worked in publishing for ten years as an editor and writer of both fiction and non-fiction.
His first novel, The Madonnas of Echo Park, ws released in 2010. The novel follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles, giving voice to the Echo Park neighborhood with an astonishing—and unforgettable—lyrical power. The book received the 2011 PEN/Hemingway award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
His second book, Take This Man, a memoir, recounts his childhood years with his mother and her five husbands. It came out in 2014.
Skyhorse currently lives in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has been appointed the 2014 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-In-Washington at George Washington University. (Author bio compiled with information from the publisher and other online sources.)
Book Reviews
This isn’t a predictable tale of irresponsible parenting.... For most of the book, the subject seems to be a fatherless young man on the proverbial quest for identity.... Then Skyhorse pulls a neat switch.... Thirty years later, Skyhorse does indeed track down the biological father who abandoned him, but in the intervening years he understands that the absent Father is unrecoverable.... So this memoir isn’t about absence. It’s about presence. Skyhorse’s subject isn’t what he’ll never have. It’s what he’ll always have, what he can’t get rid of.
Rhoda Janzen - New York Times Book Review
(Starred review.) [A] vivid and idiosyncratic family memoir .... Skyhorse's upbringing has had lasting effects on his romantic relationships and mental health, but he manages to write about his experiences and those who shaped them with grace. By turns darkly comical and moving, this powerful memoir of a family in flux will stick with readers well after they’ve put it down.
Publishers Weekly
[A]n account of [Skyhorse's] own Los Angeles childhood in the Echo Park neighborhood in a family so dysfunctional it seems to be fictional.... At 33, he finally searches for [his father] and gradually becomes part of a new, blessedly normal family. A harrowing, compulsively readable story of one man’s remarkable search for identity. —Deborah Donovan
Booklist
(Starred review.) [A] wickedly compelling account of a dysfunctional childhood growing up "a full blooded American Indian brave" with five different fathers.... As he gathered up the shards of his life...Skyhorse realized the one truth that his storytelling mother and grandmother had known instinctively: that "stories [could] help you survive"…. By turns funny and wrenching, the narrative is an unforgettable tour de force of memory, love and imagination.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
2. What motivated Maria to fabricate a Native American identity for herself and Brando? How did the phrase she repeated (“At least it’s never boring”) shed light on her extreme, often outrageous behavior? Why was Maria able to get away with the lies and stories she told?
3. Discuss the cultural identity issues that Maria’s charade caused Brando. Why did he defy his mother and “come out” as a Mexican when he was in his teens? Was Sofie right or wrong to accuse Brando of lying to her?
4. Grandma June was supportive of Brando—encouraging his love of reading, for example—and at other times was cruel to him. How would you describe their relationship? Was she more of a positive or a negative influence in her grandson’s life?
5. Discuss the atmosphere inside the Echo Park house. How did June and Maria’s relationship impact Brando? What conclusions are there to be drawn from the fact that being on the road, away from the house, “stripped away [Maria’s] characteristic fear and disappointment” (page 58)?
6. How did Brando’s view of his mother, and his relationship with her, change as he got older? How about after he went away to Stanford? Why does he wish he could go back and warn his younger self after arriving on campus? What advice would he give him?
7. Discuss Brando’s relationships with each of his stepfathers—Robert, Paul, Pat, and Rudy—and the impact they had on him. What did he most want from a father figure? How did this shift over time?
8. Discuss the role Frank has played in Brando’s life. What has kept the two of them connected for decades? Why was it Frank, never married to Maria, who became most like a father to Brando?
9. Brando admits that by the time he contacted Candido he’d “had so many fathers that even the idea of a father—the very word father—seemed absurd” (page 3). Why then did he finally decide to reach out to him? Did he get what he had hoped to from Candido?
10. Candido cited the circumstances of his tempestuous parting with Maria and her threats to have him deported as the reasons why he never contacted Brando. Did he give up too easily on trying to be involved in his son’s life? Were his actions justifiable in any way? Why or why not?
11. In what ways are Candido’s daughters “so unlike” the women Brando grew up with, and why is this glaringly apparent to him (page 230)? Why is he able to connect more with his sisters than with Candido?
12. Why didn’t Brando return home for Maria’s funeral? Is his decision understandable? When he was finally able to cry after his mother’s death, what was he really mourning?
13. The book’s title, Take This Man, draws attention to the men in Brando’s life. Why do you suppose this title was selected? Do you think it’s an accurate reflection of the book? Overall, how are men presented in the memoir?
14. What lasting effects has Brando’s upbringing had on him as an adult? In what ways has it impacted his romantic relationships, his emotional well-being, and other aspects of his life?
15. What is your overall opinion of Take This Man, including your thoughts on Brando as a narrator? Which aspects of the book particularly resonated with you? How does it compare to other memoirs your group has read?
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An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny
Laura Schoff with Alex Tresniowski , 2011
Howard Books
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451648973
Summary
Stopping was never part of the plan . . .
She was a successful ad sales rep in Manhattan. He was a homeless, eleven-year-old panhandler on the street. He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But then something stopped her in her tracks, and she went back. And she continued to go back, again and again. They met up nearly every week for years and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.
Whatever made me notice him on that street corner so many years ago is clearly something that cannot be extinguished, no matter how relentless the forces aligned against it. Some may call it spirit. Some may call it heart. It drew me to him, as if we were bound by some invisible, unbreakable thread. And whatever it is, it binds us still. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Born—ca. 1951
• Raised—Huntington (Long Island) New York, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in New York City, New York
Laura Schroff is a former advertising executive who has helped launch three of the most successful start-ups in Time Inc. history—InStyle, Teen People, and People StyleWatch. Schroff has also worked as the New York Division Manager at People magazine and Associate Publisher at Brides. She lives in New York City. (From the publisher.)
Alex Tresniowski is the top human-interest writer at People and has written several books, most notably The Vendetta, which was purchased by Universal Studios and used as a basis for the movie Public Enemies. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
If you have a beating heart—or if you fear you’re suffering a hardening of the emotional arteries—you really ought to commit to this book at the earliest possible opportunity . . . read this book. And pass it on. And encourage the next reader to do the same.
Huffington Post - Jesse Kornbluth
According to an old Chinese proverb, there's an invisible thread that connects two people who are destined to meet and influence each other's lives..... As Schroff relates Maurice's story, she tells of her own father's alcoholism and abuse, and readers see how desperately these two need each other in this feel-good story about the far-reaching benefits of kindness.
Publishers Weekly
A straightforward tale of kindness and paying it forward in 1980s New York.... Admirably, Schroff notes that she did not seek a role as a "substitute parent," and she does not judge Maurice's mother for her lifestyle. That both main figures experience a few setbacks yet eventually survive is never in question; the story fittingly concludes with an epilogue by Maurice. For readers seeking an uplifting reminder that small gestures matter.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. An Invisible Thread introduces readers to some of the realities of poor families living in large metropolitan cities. How would you characterize Maurice’s family life? What kind of differences do you think exist between urban and rural poverty?
3. Laura’s grandfather would say “Il solo tempo lei dovrebbe baciare i sue bambini in quango dormono,” or “The only time you should kiss your children is when they are asleep.” What kind of role does love and affection play in Maurice's life? What about Laura’s?
4. Why is Laura so adamant about obtaining permission from Maurice’s mother so he can attend the Mets game?
5. In what ways is privilege evident in An Invisible Thread? What types of privilege can you identify? How would you compare and contrast this privilege in the 1980s with today?
6. Why do you think Laura stayed with Michael, even though he denied her what she wanted more than anything?
7. Laura’s family life growing up had a significant impact on her and her siblings, especially in terms of what they wanted for their own families. Based on Laura’s descriptions, how would you characterize the lives of the siblings’ individual families?
8. Laura writes that, “Sometimes we are drawn to that which is exactly the same” alluding to the impact that familiarity can have on one’s comfort, regardless of how bad the conditions may be. How does Laura’s life stray from this idea? How does she embrace what is different?
9. How did you interpret Michael’s initial rejection of Maurice? What role did this rejection play in Laura’s decision to divorce him?
10. The title, An Invisible Thread suggests several meanings about the bonds that connect us with others. Describe how these themes are reflected in Maurice’s and Laura’s lives, as well as in their relationships with other people.
11. Laura later discovers that Maurice was actually twelve when they first met, not eleven, because he wasn’t even sure himself how old he was. How does this detail signify the importance of identity in An Invisible Thread?
12. Laura was initially careful to maintain boundaries between her and Maurice, ensuring that she was a friend to him and nothing more. At what point do you think their relationship changed from a friendship to something more akin to a mother and a son?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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Then Again
Diane Keaton, 2012
Random House
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812980950
Summary
Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she’d collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.
So begins Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives.
In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane’s grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.
More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 5, 1946
• Where—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—Santa College and Orange College (no degrees)
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Keaton subsequently expanded her range to avoid becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an accomplished dramatic performer, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981) and Marvin's Room (1996). Some of her popular later films include Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), Something's Gotta Give (2003), and The Family Stone (2005). Keaton's films have earned a cumulative gross of over US$1.1 billion in North America.[1] In addition to acting, she is also a photographer, real estate developer, author, and occasional singer.
Background
Keaton was born as Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Dorothy Deanne (née Keaton; 1921–2008), was a homemaker and amateur photographer; her father, John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall (1921–1990), was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Her father, from Nebraska, came from an Irish-American Catholic background, and her mother, originally from Kansas, came from a Methodist family, and had English, German, and more distant Austrian, ancestry.
Keaton was raised a Free Methodist by her mother. Her mother won the "Mrs. Los Angeles" pageant for homemakers; Keaton has said that the theatricality of the event inspired her first impulse to be an actress, and led to her wanting to work on stage. She has also credited Katharine Hepburn, whom she admires for playing strong and independent women, as one of her inspirations.
Keaton is a 1963 graduate of Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. During her time there, she participated in singing and acting clubs at school, and starred as Blanche DuBois in a school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After graduation, she attended Santa Ana College, and later Orange Coast College as an acting student, but dropped out after a year to pursue an entertainment career in Manhattan.
Upon joining the Actors' Equity Association, she adopted the surname of Keaton, her mother's maiden name, as there was already a registered Diane Hall. For a brief time, she also moonlighted at nightclubs with a singing act. She would later revisit her nightclub act in Annie Hall (1977) and a cameo in Radio Days (1987).
Early career
Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique first evolved in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor/acting coach/director who had been a member of The Group Theater (1931–1940). She has described her acting technique as...
[being] only as good as the person you're acting with.... As opposed to going it on my own and forging my path to create a wonderful performance without the help of anyone. I always need the help of everyone!
According to her Reds co-star Warren Beatty, "She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don't know any other actors doing that.
In 1968, Keaton became an understudy to Sheila in the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of Act I when the cast performs nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus). After acting in Hair for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of Play It Again, Sam. After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at 5 ft 8 in./1.73 m she is two inches/5 cm taller than Allen), she won the part. The rest is history.
Personal life
Keaton has had several romantic associations with noted entertainment industry personalities starting with her time with the Broadway production of Play It Again, Sam when she auditioned for director Woody Allen. Their association became personal following a dinner after a late night rehearsal. It was her sense of humor that attracted Allen. They briefly lived together during the Broadway production but by the time of the film release of the same name in 1972 their living arrangements became informal. They worked together on eight films between 1971 and 1993, remain friends and was said by Keaton to be one of her closest friends.
She was already dating Warren Beatty from 1979 when they had co-lead roles in the film Reds. Beatty was a regular subject in tabloid magazines and media coverage to which she was included much to her bewilderment. Her avoidance of the spotlight earned her in 1985 from Vanity Fair the attribution as "the most reclusive star since Garbo." This relationship ended, as had with Allen, shortly after Reds wrapped. Troubles with the production are thought to have caused strain on the relationship, including numerous financial and scheduling problems. Keaton remains friends with Beatty.
Keaton also had a relationship with fellow cast member Al Pacino in The Godfather Trilogy. The on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of The Godfather Part III. Keaton said of Pacino,
Al was simply the most entertaining man... To me, that's, that is the most beautiful face. I think Warren was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Killer, killer face.
Pacino, who seems to have been the love of Keaton's life, never agreed to her marriage ultimatums, and their lengthy relationship ended during the time her father was dying of brain cancer.
In July 2001, Keaton revealed her thoughts on being older and unmarried, "I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage."
Keaton has two adopted children, daughter Dexter (adopted 1996) and son Duke (2001). Her father's death made mortality more prevalent and she decided to become a mother at age 50. She later said of having children, "Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about the most completely humbling experience that I've ever had." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/15/2014.)
Book Reviews
[A] far-reaching, heartbreaking, absolutely lucid book about mothers, daughters, childhood, aging, mortality, joyfulness, love, work and the search for self-knowledge. Show business too…this book manages to present the full spectrum of women's experiences, from babyhood to adolescence, youthful insecurity…to liberating adulthood to slow, lingering death. Its power as a collage has been greatly enhanced by tight, punchy editing of the fragments that Ms. Keaton variously writes or excerpts. Some of its stories are universal and painful, yet this book is not mired in melancholy. Instead it's inspiring in its empathy, wisdom and self-knowledge.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
[R]ich and ruminative, provocatively honest, jumbled and jittery and textured. It speaks in two voices: Keaton is bitingly wry, ironic and tough about herself, but pleadingly earnest and passionate when writing of her mother, to whom she feels she owes her success, her self-esteem—just about everything. It's as if she's bargaining with her readers: she'll open her life to view and dish the dirt she knows we want, as long as we love her mother as she did. It's worth taking her up on it.
Sheila Weller -New York Times Book Review
Although peek-behind-the-curtain moments are delicious—Woody Allen! Warren Beatty! Jack Nicholson!...this is a [memoir] about a mother and a daughter, with insights and confessions and lessons to which all readers can relate.
Wall Street Journal
Then Again reads like the diary of an ordinary woman who suddenly became a movie star, who doesn’t quite believe any of it happened, but it did.
Los Angeles Times
Both heartbreaking and joyful, [Then Again] covers the gamut of life experiences facing all women.
Chicago Sun-Times
For anyone looking to join one woman’s—albeit a famous woman’s—touching and funny journey into the vortex that is the parent-child relationship, Then Again features an especially honest tour guide.
USA Today
A poem about women living in one another’s not uncomplicated memories.... Part of what makes Diane Keaton’s memoir, Then Again, truly amazing is that she does away with the star’s ‘me’ and replaces it with a daughter’s ‘I.’
Hilton Als - New Yorker
As warm, funny, and self-deprecating as Keaton’s onscreen persona—[Then Again] traces a profound dramatic arc: that of a young woman coming into her own as an artist, and of a daughter becoming a mother.
Vogue
This book feels like Diane Keaton. Which means it’s lovable.
Entertainment Weekly
This audio production of Keaton’s memoir delivers something you won’t get in the print edition: Diane Keaton herself. As a narrator, Keaton’s personality, talent, and vulnerability shine through.... This audio weaves Hall’s journal entries, by turns joyous and painful, with Keaton’s memories from her childhood and adult life. Entertaining and a must for fans.
Publishers Weekly
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty
Diane Keaton, 2014
Random House
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812994261
Summary
From Academy Award winner and bestselling author Diane Keaton comes a candid, hilarious, and deeply affecting look at beauty, aging, and the importance of staying true to yourself—no matter what anyone else thinks.
Diane Keaton has spent a lifetime coloring outside the lines of the conventional notion of beauty. In Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty, she shares the wisdom she’s accumulated through the years as a mother, daughter, actress, artist, and international style icon. This is a book only Diane Keaton could write—a smart and funny chronicle of the ups and downs of living and working in a world obsessed with beauty.
In her one-of-a-kind voice, Keaton offers up a message of empowerment for anyone who’s ever dreamed of kicking back against the “should”s and “supposed to”s that undermine our pursuit of beauty in all its forms. From a mortifying encounter with a makeup artist who tells her she needs to get her eyes fixed to an awkward excursion to Victoria’s Secret with her teenage daughter, Keaton shares funny and not-so-funny moments from her life in and out of the public eye.
For Diane Keaton, being beautiful starts with being true to who you are, and in this book she also offers self-knowing commentary on the bold personal choices she’s made through the years: the wide-brimmed hats, outrageous shoes, and all-weather turtlenecks that have made her an inspiration to anyone who cherishes truly individual style—and catnip to paparazzi worldwide. She recounts her experiences with the many men in her life—including Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, and Sam Shepard—shows how our ideals of beauty change as we age, and explains why a life well lived may be the most beautiful thing of all.
Wryly observant and as fiercely original as Diane Keaton herself, Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty is a head-turner of a book that holds up a mirror to our beauty obsessions—and encourages us to like what we see. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 5, 1946
• Where—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—Santa College and Orange College (no degrees)
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Keaton subsequently expanded her range to avoid becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an accomplished dramatic performer, starring in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981) and Marvin's Room (1996). Some of her popular later films include Baby Boom (1987), Father of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), Something's Gotta Give (2003), and The Family Stone (2005). Keaton's films have earned a cumulative gross of over US$1.1 billion in North America.[1] In addition to acting, she is also a photographer, real estate developer, author, and occasional singer.
Background
Keaton was born as Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Dorothy Deanne (née Keaton; 1921–2008), was a homemaker and amateur photographer; her father, John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall (1921–1990), was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Her father, from Nebraska, came from an Irish-American Catholic background, and her mother, originally from Kansas, came from a Methodist family, and had English, German, and more distant Austrian, ancestry.
Keaton was raised a Free Methodist by her mother. Her mother won the "Mrs. Los Angeles" pageant for homemakers; Keaton has said that the theatricality of the event inspired her first impulse to be an actress, and led to her wanting to work on stage. She has also credited Katharine Hepburn, whom she admires for playing strong and independent women, as one of her inspirations.
Keaton is a 1963 graduate of Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. During her time there, she participated in singing and acting clubs at school, and starred as Blanche DuBois in a school production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After graduation, she attended Santa Ana College, and later Orange Coast College as an acting student, but dropped out after a year to pursue an entertainment career in Manhattan.
Upon joining the Actors' Equity Association, she adopted the surname of Keaton, her mother's maiden name, as there was already a registered Diane Hall. For a brief time, she also moonlighted at nightclubs with a singing act. She would later revisit her nightclub act in Annie Hall (1977) and a cameo in Radio Days (1987).
Early career
Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique first evolved in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor/acting coach/director who had been a member of The Group Theater (1931–1940). She has described her acting technique as...
[being] only as good as the person you're acting with.... As opposed to going it on my own and forging my path to create a wonderful performance without the help of anyone. I always need the help of everyone!
According to her Reds co-star Warren Beatty, "She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don't know any other actors doing that.
In 1968, Keaton became an understudy to Sheila in the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of Act I when the cast performs nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus). After acting in Hair for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of Play It Again, Sam. After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at 5 ft 8 in./1.73 m she is two inches/5 cm taller than Allen), she won the part. The rest is history.
Personal life
Keaton has had several romantic associations with noted entertainment industry personalities starting with her time with the Broadway production of Play It Again, Sam when she auditioned for director Woody Allen. Their association became personal following a dinner after a late night rehearsal. It was her sense of humor that attracted Allen. They briefly lived together during the Broadway production but by the time of the film release of the same name in 1972 their living arrangements became informal. They worked together on eight films between 1971 and 1993, remain friends and was said by Keaton to be one of her closest friends.
She was already dating Warren Beatty from 1979 when they had co-lead roles in the film Reds. Beatty was a regular subject in tabloid magazines and media coverage to which she was included much to her bewilderment. Her avoidance of the spotlight earned her in 1985 from Vanity Fair the attribution as "the most reclusive star since Garbo." This relationship ended, as had with Allen, shortly after Reds wrapped. Troubles with the production are thought to have caused strain on the relationship, including numerous financial and scheduling problems. Keaton remains friends with Beatty.
Keaton also had a relationship with fellow cast member Al Pacino in The Godfather Trilogy. The on-again, off-again relationship ended following the filming of The Godfather Part III. Keaton said of Pacino,
Al was simply the most entertaining man... To me, that's, that is the most beautiful face. I think Warren was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Killer, killer face.
Pacino, who seems to have been the love of Keaton's life, never agreed to her marriage ultimatums, and their lengthy relationship ended during the time her father was dying of brain cancer.
In July 2001, Keaton revealed her thoughts on being older and unmarried, "I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage."
Keaton has two adopted children, daughter Dexter (adopted 1996) and son Duke (2001). Her father's death made mortality more prevalent and she decided to become a mother at age 50. She later said of having children, "Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about the most completely humbling experience that I've ever had." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/15/2014.)
Book Reviews
Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty could have been a cogent commentary on aging from the perspective of someone fighting a Hollywood system that marginalizes maturity. Instead, it’s an often too-flighty series of essays that la-di-das its way toward obvious conclusions, like the fact that attractiveness comes in many forms and colors, or that “while smiling is lovely...laughing is beautiful.” That may be true, but it’s also something most people knew before they opened Keaton’s book.
Jen Chaney - Washington Post
Relaxing and charming...like a dishy lunch with the movie star you thought you’d never be lucky enough to meet.... This is delicious writing and is full of a positive point of view, exclamations of the beauty of ordinary things and helped turn me from sour to sweet in the few hours that I was reading her book.... Diane Keaton is in a class by herself and this book is good for the soul.
Chicago Tribune
Wise, witty, thoughtful, uplifting, the truth, unvarnished—and very funny.
Toronto Star
Diane has now written a follow-up to her first best-seller, "Then Again." And this book is relaxing and charming, unlike everything else out there in the dark apocalyptic stacks. "Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty," well, it made me laugh out loud many times....This book is like a dishy lunch with the movie star you thought you'd never be lucky enough to meet. And Diane isn't coy, but she kind of is forever hiding her own stardom under a top hat or a derby. This is delicious writing and is full of a positive point of view, exclamations of the beauty of ordinary things, and it helped turn me from sour to sweet in the few hours that I was reading her book.
Liz Smith
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)