W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, But Use With Caution
Review: There have been numerous books on the "Great One" and R.L. Taylor's is among the earliest. If the reader is to embark on a serious study of Fields, this should be the first book you read, but use it with caution. Fields was a great rancatour and if a lie would serve better than the truth, he did it. It's hard to seperate fact from fiction when dealing with Fields. No doubt he detested having his privacy intruded on, and his childhood was probably painful. Fields propped up his erratic life with hard drinking, which eventually killed him. And, so many of his tales sound like boozy comedy skits. Still, Fields life tends to read like a Dickens novel. The influence that Dickens had on the comedian is umistakeable, with film characters like short tempered "Mr. Muckle" the portly "Adelai Brunch Souse" and "Professor Eustice McGargle"