Rating: 
Summary: Truly a worthwhile Read!!!
Review: I truly enjoyed this Memoir by Richard Chamberlain. I loved the way he took us through his entire life, not only as an a actor but how he has evolved to be the person he is today. The people he admired as well as those who really had touched his life whether it be a positive or negative way. This book is a MUST READ for ALL Richard Chamberlain fans!!! You definately WON'T Be Sorry!!!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful uplifting book!
Review: I was a boy when i realized i was gay. Now i'm 55. I watched Dr. Kildare every week as a kid and had this secret love-affair with him in fantasy. When i got older i had the honor to see him live on stage and i was even more impressed and more in love with him. After reading this book and seeing how much my life had changed unknowing that what Richard was doing with his spirtual life i was doing pretty much the same i feel like i love him more. Of course now it's not a sexual love but a love of on a much more broad and very grand scale of life. This book even though i have always believed in basically the same things has answered questions that i had but didn't know how to get the answers. I almost feel like Richard in some way is like my little angel who has given me more insite to all that has gone on in my life from performing in live theatre to an accident i had that ended that part of my career to how i have grown spiritual from the first time i ever saw him on TV. This is a very powerful, uplifting, soul-searching, kind, loving book. People with any insight on what is good will enjoy Richard's stories. I hope that he continues to write. He's a very talented man.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: I was all excited to read this book when I started. After all Richard Chamberlain had worked with many big names in Hollywood. It was not as good as I thought. One reason is that throughout the book Chamberlain seems to be embarrassed to just say what happened and seems to use innuendos rather than to intricately describe a lot of things that happened.Also, he dated/accompanied many big name actresses/royalty. You are expecting a lot of detailed observations about these times (for instance when he went out with Joan Crawford) and maybe some interesting antedotes but they are not there. Even in his male/male relations Richard talks like a sheltered "princess" not really telling you anything "juicy." Also, there are several letters and poems that he includes that for the most part I found boring. Richard talks about living his life with the public's "perfect" image in mind instead of the way he wanted to based on his own feelings. It seems like the way he wrote this book, he was too concerned about his image to present a no-holds barred account of himself. The best parts of the book are when Richard describes a 17 day spiritual workshop he took and his work on the Shogun miniseries. Both of these chapters are worth the whole book! In the workshop, Richard finally got the courage to face the world with his "own" desires. The Shogun miniseries was full of problems during the production, mainly due to culteral difference between the Japanese and American culteral crews. Chamberlain has experienced a very full life and I am sure if he tried he could redo this book and make it great.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been a lot better.
Review: I was all excited to read this book when I started. After all Richard Chamberlain had worked with many big names in Hollywood. It was not as good as I thought. One reason is that throughout the book Chamberlain seems to be embarrassed to just say what happened and seems to use innuendos rather than to intricately describe a lot of things that happened. Also, he dated/accompanied many big name actresses/royalty. You are expecting a lot of detailed observations about these times (for instance when he went out with Joan Crawford) and maybe some interesting antedotes but they are not there. Even in his male/male relations Richard talks like a sheltered "princess" not really telling you anything "juicy." Also, there are several letters and poems that he includes that for the most part I found boring. Richard talks about living his life with the public's "perfect" image in mind instead of the way he wanted to based on his own feelings. It seems like the way he wrote this book, he was too concerned about his image to present a no-holds barred account of himself. The best parts of the book are when Richard describes a 17 day spiritual workshop he took and his work on the Shogun miniseries. Both of these chapters are worth the whole book! In the workshop, Richard finally got the courage to face the world with his "own" desires. The Shogun miniseries was full of problems during the production, mainly due to culteral difference between the Japanese and American culteral crews. Chamberlain has experienced a very full life and I am sure if he tried he could redo this book and make it great.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much psycho-babble
Review: I was disappointed in this memoir. I'm a big fan of Richard Chamberlain's acting. However, this book reads like one long psychotherapy session. I came away from the experience feeling that Mr. Chamberlain is not a very complicated person. The writing style and the book have too much of a surfacy, "sing-songy" quality for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Healing a damaged soul
Review: I've never been a fan of Richard Chamberlain the actor. I never questioned his talent, but he plied his trade most successfully in "Shogun" and "The Thornbirds," TV mini-series that didn't interest me, and in lame-brained big-screen blockbusters like "The Towering Inferno" which interested me less. Therefore, I was suprised at how much I enjoyed his well-written memoir, "Shattered Love." The dramatic title does not refer, as I initially thought, to a romantic relationship gone wrong, but to Chamberlain's belief that we are all splinters - pieces, rather than products - of a loving God. I'm not sure I accept that theory but Chamberlain is obviously sincere in his philisophical and spiritual beliefs, and they have no doubt helped heal his damaged soul. Part of that damage resulted from his long repressed homosexuality, but though Chamberlain's "coming out" was used to promote the book, it is but one piece of the whole, just as he regards his sexual orientation as just a piece, and a mundane one at that, of his entire being. This is not a lurid confessional but a heartfelt account of Chamberlain's search for truth and self-acceptance based on the quality and content of his soul rather than the size of his fame and popularity. Of course, Chamberlain takes time to reflect on his acting career, but avoids back-biting and gossip, finding only kind words for co-stars like Raquel Welch whom he and the other cast members of 1974's "The Three Musketeers" were predisposed to dislike but found adorable, and Barbara Stanwyck, whose professionalism impressed him when they co-starred in "The Thornbirds." But when he turns his attention to show-biz, Chamberlain mainly focuses on how he learned his craft, and how his inhibitions and insecurity were hurdles he had to jump before he could excel at his art. "Shattered Love" is an inspiring and worthwhile read, even if, like me, you were never really a fan of the actor who wrote it. By the final chapter, you may be one.
Rating:
Summary: "Breathing Birdsong"
Review: If you read this book, you'll know why "Breathing Birdsong" would have been a better title than "Shattered Love," which makes it sound like some steamy or maudlin affair. As much as you'd like it to be, it's not a celebrity bio---nor is it some blithe beach read. It's a surprisingly interesting spiritual diary of the popular TV actor. While the journal-esuqe aspect of this quick read is decidedly "New Age-y," it deserves attention and respect for, not only the personal enlightenment & self discovery of the well known author, but the important messages about love and tolerances it tries valiantly to convey.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful, warm, touching
Review: It's hard too find proper words to describe the book and the feelings it had roused in me (especially because English is not my native language). So I just want to say: it's a terrific book. Warm and touching. If you are a fan of Richard Chamberlain - you should read it. If you want to know more about him - read it, too. I never have read such an open biography. He is opening his heart and his soul. I always knew Richard is a terrific actor but know I know he is also a terrific author. I just hope there will be more books from him. And I wish to say. Congratulations to Richard and Martin for such a wonderful longtime relationship - and thanks for this wonderful present to the fens. Aloha and Mahalo Nohea and Moani.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful piece of writing - You shouldn't miss it!
Review: Moving, quite-frankly, taken from real life, a must-read for everone.
I warmly recommend it not just to Richard Chamberlain fans.
It should be found in any public library and translated for those who don't know or only know little English.
Readers won't just learn something of Richard's life but rather learn a great deal for themselves, too.
Mahalo nui loa Richard and Martin!
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for the human race!
Review: Richard Chamberlain has written a wonderfully philosophical account of his life, which I found inspiring and uplifting. I know that, even if everyone on the planet were to read it, there still would be many for whom it would be meaningless or even sacriligious, but for those whose minds are not closed to new ways of thinking, it could be an eye-opener. The title refers not at all to heartbreak, but rather to the author's spiritual beliefs that we are all part of the greater love which fills the universe - to say more would spoil his description, which you should read for yourelf! I don't feel that Mr. Chamberlain's spiritual beliefs and the various religious beliefs in the world are necessarily mutually exclusive; instead, they can be an extension of almost any creed. That we and everything on earth are part of the divine order is a concept which can only help bring us together as a species. Even if only a few people see the potential in this way of thinking, it would be a step in the right direction, one in which we stop seeing our differences, and start respecting each other and the world we live in. Don't be put off by the fact that this is not a gossipy memoir - Mr. Chamberlain writes in a very readable style, and weaves his own story seamlessly in with his beliefs. This is a model of what a biography should be: not just a record of events in a life, but also a true examination of the heart and soul of a man.
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