Brando for Breakfast

Rating:
Summary: "Brando for Breakfast" not quite "my cup of tea"
Review: This could have earned five stars. The beginning is a page-turner, a passionate tribute and introduction to one of the most magnetic screen personalities ever. The subject is a show-stopper, and the voluminous detail is of the kind that only a wife could relate and only an ex-wife would want to.

Unfortunately, the book's assets also create its problems. The story flow constantly stops dead in its tracks like a cross-country local train, side-tracking with minutiae such as movie credits and peripheral details that should have been put into footnotes, and eventually by particularly arcane foreign phrases and literary allusions that would need a scholar to decipher, where plain English would have been appreciated; her intelligence came through without the intrusive affectations. After the whirlwind start I ended up forcing myself to finish the book, hoping for just one more outrageous anecdote or thoughtful opinion, and yes these materialized, but then the story stopped dead yet again. Anna Brando was so caught up in the emotions of their relationship that she kept forgetting to tell a coherent story. There is no comparison with "Mommie Dearest." Christina Crawford remembers to tell her story. Anna Kashfi Brando's "Brando for Breakfast" sounds more like a divorce lawyer's case notes, full of meat but, in the end, not a tale. This is a book that should have had an index. I will keep my copy just for the very personal anecdotes with the ring of truth in how she remembers them but never, ever to read cover-to-cover again.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre biography on a fascinating person!
Review: When I started reading this biography, i.e., Brando for Breakfast by Anna K. and Stein, E. P. Brando I had great hopes for a well written story on one of the greatest actors/performers of all time. I though that it would be quite informative and enlightening to read a biography from the perspective of his ex-wife. However, Anna Brando seems more interested in writing a tabloid style tell all biography and much of what she writes is to shock the reader with sharp anecdotes. The story is also one sided (which is no surprise since they were married and she probably had some bitterness towards him) but as a writer it is important to sometimes be able to separate the facts from the anecdotes (especially when writing a biography about and on someone else). Not Recommended.