The Unimportance Of Being Oscar by Oscar Levant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A huge lot of fun is this volume of Oscar Levant’s memories of his life.

Whether the many stories and one liners are true or not is whether you can believe a person who has been in and out of mental institutions and ensconced in pharmaceuticals can have reliable memories to pick through. Nevertheless, the stories are very good and extremely readable.

The most important thing to know if one wishes to read this book are, at least, 75% of the people mentioned throughout. Otherwise a reader will have no appreciation or understanding of the context, humor and importance of what is included. The time frame is from the 1920s to the 1960s.

The book is also hardly organized at all. Of what I know of Levant, this well reflected his thought process. There is an invaluable index.

A personal note: I’ve been looking for this book for decades. The day I came across it, I started reading – as I drove away from the place I found it! After the death of my father a bit over a month ago, I know the Snuffy Smith phrase, “Time’s a’wastin’!” is to live by.

Bottom line: I highly recommend this book. 10 out of 10 points.

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