Rating: 
Summary: Got Milk?
Review: This is a disappointing book - no more than a meal of white milk and white bread. In the later chapters, Chamberlain muses that "ideally" an actor's life would be completely unknown to his audience, and mentions that he had been uncertain whether to include Martin, his life companion, in the memoir at all. What might people think? As it happens, he reveals very little about himself and even less about Martin. His spiritual journey is also bland, flirting with New Age distortions of Hasidic belief. I think only the most diehard fan would not regret this purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: To live in peace with God and mortal being
Review: When Amazon.com recommended to me Richard Chamberlain's book Shattered Love: A Memoir it didn't attract my attention, first and foremost because I thought it was a book about famous people and fame, stuff that doesn't interest me. But to base my decision on something I read the customers' review. Some of the reviewers got me to believe that it is a book about what the life have to offer, if one wants to create and steers his own life, rather than gossip and stories of famous people; a book about the pain that follows and are all around one who cannot be himself in his daily life. In other words, a book about being a thoughtful human being. Richard Chamberlain's book is well organized and in more than one way remarkable. Hopefully it will help those who walk in his shoes to benefit from his footprints. Because English is not my mother tongue I neither can nor think it's right of me to criticize the text, but can say that I find comfortable to read the book. Fortunately, it isn't a book about fame, so they who want to hear gossip should read another book. It's a book for those who respect the life and want to get acquainted with the nature and voluntarily open their heart for the unknown. The book reflects itself in following sentence: "It's interesting that some of us are born with, or acquire along the way, a dark sea of inner doubt and insecurity that keeps us adrift, continually swimming to catch up"... The book's strength is the author's decision to accentuate on humanity. Over the years he have thought a lot of spiritual matters; in what way he can developed his mind and thought; including the love, which is naturally quite the same feeling either people are gay or straight. Finally he has found his way to live the life alive and now he shares his life experience with his readers. I fell in love with his description of the love; how he compares it to grammar; love as a noun and love as a verb. With his own words: "Love, the noun, isn't primarily something you do, it's something you are, a state of being. When you open to this level of love, you radiate love in all directions simply because that's what you are. Personal love is more a verb, an activity, a choice, something you do. Divine love has no object, it just is. Personal love is an emotion directed from you to a particular someone else or something else. Divine love shines freely like the sun on everything. Personal love tends to be selective and highly conditional." There is nothing more to say; it's wonderful description, almost poetical. His nature descriptions show that he appreciates and have an eye for the beauty in the unknown or the not well known. Sometimes I missed detailed descriptions, especially if I didn't recognized the place or circumstances. But as a person who lives in North-Europe I smiled to myself when I saw how extraordinary he thinks the bright summer nights in Finland. These long days (or short nights) are as natural as anything can be for us who live in this part of the world, but they astonish those who live far away, and that always amuses me. As a feminist I noticed especially in what way he talks about women, and can say that he deserves many points for see them as a human being, but not as a pretty things. He also deserves points for see animals as a living creatures with feelings. It's always a sheer pleasure to read a book by thoughtful human being, but it's sad to read a book by man who the public opinion (or is it the media opinion?) puts in the circumstances to deny part of himself. Being gay and act straight man is as much normal as being straight and act gay man; something that seems to me is fashionable in the United States nowadays. Please, try to understand for once and for all that to divide people into gay and straight and make as if that tells us anything is absurd! And by the way, it's ridiculous and in contravention of common sense to talk about "to admit" homosexuality. Homosexuality is not a crime. Gay people should never have been put in the situations to explain (or spell out) their sexuality rather than straight people. Homosexuality and heterosexuality are both part of the nature's spectrum, whether or not people face up to it or close their eyes before it. Other thing is that gay people have to live their life in a straight world. Many of them have to pretend they are something else than they are, and without doubt, too many have a phobia against themselves, like Chamberlain once - it happens to famous and unknown, intelligent and unintelligent people. Because of that, it always pleases me when people, gay and straight, respect themselves and the life enough to say: Being gay is non-issue. One sunny day it will be non-issue, hopefully! At last, because I have recently read the book The Man who was Dorian Gray, and also because Richard Chamberlain once acted in England, I must say, that, in his early years, he would have been fantastic as Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's excellent novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Is is enough reasons to congratulate the author with a beautiful book about things that matters to us all most.
Rating:
Summary: OPENING THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART
Review: When I received my copy of SHATTERED LOVE, I read it with much interest of my dear friend's expose of his double-sided, fence sitting life. It is a psychological, spiritual journey of Richard's views on God, love and forgiveness as he learned the truth behind the illusion that he presented. From all of the worlds's spiritual teachers, he learned from in the past 25 years, Richard weaves his own philosphy of trying to achieve divine enlightenment as he states "self discovery is the very essence of a life worth living." He believes the center of NOW of WHAT IS currently happening. One of his paintings has this theme. Like a butterfly ever changing and growing, Richard seeks his spiritual soul where GOD and Love live inside and learn to radiate outward. As Moni moved in and took gradual control, Richard fell into a blind maze and lost his soul. Uncomfortable and forever searching, he can be either intimately focused or coldly aloof. By all standards Richard is a remarkable man of many talents in acting, painting, singing, playing the piano and now writing his own insightful book. It could have had more of his childhood and other things that we already knew about but something is missing. There is a gap that was left out. Since Martin had input and has control, the book is stilted omitting some of Richard's life before him. The book does reflect that Richard's career came first above everthing else with his fears of work not coming, his indesiveness to commitment and his life is an empty void. On the Today show interview, Richard did mention the many girl friends that he had over the years and cared deeply about such as Clara, Yvette, Linda, Joan etc. If you want to read the other side of Richard, read LIFE'S POTPOURRI. Truly, Richard IS Father Ralph. All in all, Richard's book is a delightful read not only about himself but also what the journey of life to obtain enlightenment of one's soul that he is trying to restore and find. May Richard truly find yet GOD's wisdom and understanding of how to live one's life more fully despite missing out on love given.
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