Rating: 
Summary: A good book on one of the greatest showmen
Review: This biography traces the life of one of the most prolific actors/comedians of the 20th Century - Groucho Marx. We are introduced to the man behind the great (perhaps the greatest?)comic genius. Groucho (né Julius Henry) Marx was the third son of German Jew Immigrants in New York. His mother Minnie (the driving force behind the Marx Brothers) was influenced by her brother Al Shean who had a reasonably successful career seeing which Minnie decided to enter her five sons into showbiz. After various permutations and combinations and numerous failures and struggles, the Marx Brothers made an indelible name for themselves first in Vaudeville (stage shows featuring a variety of dance, song, humor, and magic) and then in Broadway and the movies as The Marx Brothers (Chico, Harpo Groucho and Zeppo). The brothers had a glorious career from the 1920s to the 1940s despite the depression in between. Groucho later went on to have a highly successful solo career as a radio (and later TV) host of the quiz show "You bet your life" for which he won critical acclaim. The sad part about Groucho's life was that it seemed to be based on the dictum of why-have-it-simple-when-you-can-have-it-complicated. Though extremely successful professionally, Groucho had an unhappy personal life especially with regard to the women in his life (mother, wives and daughters). His three marriages were nowhere nearly as successful as his life in the theatre / movies. Groucho's relationship with and (ill?)treatment at the hands of Erin (his female companion towards the end of his life) is also touched upon. The author carefully offers no comments on Erin's behaviour towards Groucho. The book is on-the-whole well researched though at some points it does seem that Kanfer wants to hurry through for lack of details. Kanfer bases his information on writings of and interviews with Groucho's peers, friends, relatives (especially his daughter Miriam). The reader is given minute details of the comedians life including how he got his nickname - he used to carry a 'grouch' bag during his vaudeville days (the 'o' at the end of each of the brothers nicknames was taken from a popular comic strip of those days, Sherlocko the Monk ). The book is interspersed with the quotable quotes Groucho made personally and in his broadway hits and movies such as Duck Soup and Animal Crackers. Though most of the quotes are very incisive and humorous, there are portions in the book where the reader is given an overdose of dialogues from the movies. After reading the book, Groucho's visage (moustache/thick eyebrows/cigar-in-the-mouth) and his inimitable quotes ('Outside of a dog a book is a mans best friend, inside of a dog it is too dark to read') remain firmly entrenched in the readers mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy Hector Arce's book instead
Review: This book breaks no new ground, merely rehashes old old stories. Hector Arce's biography (Groucho) is much better factually and in its discussion of Groucho's inner life.
Rating:
Summary: A solid, readable account
Review: This book does a nice job of putting together bits of information and stories from a variety of sources into one volume. The author's style is strong and brisk and keeps you reading. The best parts of the book are his discussions of the plays and movies, although he pads things out with a few too many pages of direct film dialogue transcription. Even when the material was very funny on its own, the Marxes' delivery is what made their movies classics, and no amount of quoting can really bring Groucho's performances to life on the page. The first part of the book is, by necessity, also largely about Chico and Harpo, and Kanfer keeps all the brothers in focus as long as they remain important to Groucho; Kanfer also nicely charts the various rises and declines of Groucho's later life. There are two main problems: one is that there are virtually no notes, despite the vast amount of direct quotes from various sources. There is a list of major published works on Groucho, with some given helpful annotation, but more detailed notes should have been present. The other problem is that, too often, Kanfer forgets to let us know what year he's talking about, or how much time is passing between sections. Several times, I found myself flipping back and forth, trying to place an incident in time. The book is strictly chronological, but the details get slippery. I would also have liked a few more photographs. Overall, recommended--almost certainly the best bio yet about a cherished and never to be forgotten man.
Rating:
Summary: The Magic Word is "Enigmatic"
Review: This is a fascinating...and frequently sad account of "the life and times" of a truly great comic artist. First with his brothers and then on his own, he created a public persona wearing a "hard clown mask", a persona which he then became in his private life. Eventually and literally, on-screen and off, what people saw is what they got. Kanfer examines Marx's relentlessly unpleasant relationships with his mother and with his brothers, his inadequacies as a husband and father, his immaturity in "matters of women, money, and power", the impact of Irving Thalberg at MGM on the Marx Brothers movies made at that studio, and the agonies Marx experienced during his later years. Many (most?) of his most painful wounds were self-inflicted but, as Kanfer suggests, Marx also did great damage to family members. How ironic that someone capable of making so many people howl with delight would be "incapable of expressing strong emotion, no matter how deep." That is a realm within Marx which even Kanfer was unable to penetrate.
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Summary: Read a different Groucho biography instead
Review: This is a poorly written book that provides little new information to ardent fans of the Marx Brothers. The author split his infinitive. Please. Reading the book was not very amusing.
Rating: 
Summary: High Marx
Review: This is an entertaining book. I agree with some of the other reviews here that it is a bit light on research (it would have been nice to have more source notes), but it covers Groucho and the other Marx Brothers well without being exhaustively analytic. Like most comedians, it seems, Groucho was not a happy or a nice man. His humor seems to have come from a dark strain of insecurity and ego that grew worse as he got older. Kanfer does not try to gloss this over. One point this book does have over the 1979 biography by Hector Arce--it covers Groucho's last years in detail and details the results of the lawsuit between the Marx children and Erin Fleming, Groucho's secretary and companion. Fans of Groucho will also want to seek out the essay Adam Gopnick published in the New Yorker in March 2000. I also enjoyed both of Arthur Marx'es books about his Dad: Life With Groucho and Son of Groucho. Both of these books are now out of print, but well worth seeking out.
Rating:
Summary: Well thought out book of a complex person
Review: What an amazing life and career Groucho had. And what a tough, mean, talented and at the end sad person he was. A well written book of a man who gave so much of his humor, and had so much to cry about. Amazing.
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