Thalberg by Roland Flamini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Just a tremendous biography of a creative genius who knew his time was short and decided not to sit around and mope about it, but went out and lived life to it’s very fullest, thereby changing an industry. I really like the author’s focus on Thalberg’s greatest achievement, his work in film. There would seem to be nothing else to focus on, but the writer really delves deep into the inner workings of Thalberg’s work. A reader can telly get the feeling of someone, like Thalberg,that runs hard with a weak constitution.

I comboed this with reading ‘The Last Tycoon’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald based his main character Monroe Stahr on Thalberg and Fitzgerald’s dealing with him and the Mayer studio system. The two authors either were both accurate in their portrayals or both way off. Reading both at the same time really fleshed out the biography further. Though I recommend e Flamini’s book over Fitzgeralds.

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The Last Tycoon (An Unfinished Novel) together with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fitzgerald’s fictitious tale pulled from the life of Irving Thalberg sure does flesh out Thalberg’s manner and ways around a studio. I read this at the same time reading Roland Flamini’s ‘Thalberg’ about Irving’s life. Reading Fitzgerald was like reading Flamini as both illustrated the legendary producer’s life. Fitzgerald follows Thalberg closest with the studio scenes in the book. Otherwise Thalberg’s manner is well drawn out, though the personal circumstances noted in ‘The Last Tycoon’ are purely fictional to Thalberg’s life.

I’m not nutty about the writing. There are certainly good lines and passages, but as a whole it is clearly in the development stage.

Well worth reading if you are a Thalberg fan.

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