Molly Haskell

Stephen Spielberg is perhaps the most influential and well-respoected movie director of the 20th century. Yet little is known about the man, perhaps because he is not the typical Hollywood extrovert. This definitive biography breaks down Spielberg's life, from childhood to modernity, and details how each of his films correlates to his life (his childhood, specifically). Listening to the audiobook with the lights off, felt like watching a movie about the man's life, as opposed to reading about it. I will now watch his movies in a different light.… (mere)

Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films by Molly Haskell is part of the series Jewish Lives from Yale University Press. To quote the YUP site: "JEWISH LIVES is a major series of brief, interpretive biography designed to illuminate the imprint of eminent Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences." In other words, this is not simply a biography of Steven Spielberg and it is even less a fan-driven pop biography. It is, as it was supposed to be, an "interpretive biography." Haskell, who was approached to write this book, not the other way around, does a wonderful job of providing an interpretive frame that at once takes Spielberg at his word when he said “everything about me is in my films” while making into a whole the fragmented parts of his story as it has been told in the past.

Haskell brings her usual sharp eye and broad range of ideas to this project and succeeds on almost every level. We get a better, more coherent, picture of Steven Spielberg as a person, a fimmaker and as a storyteller. We also come to understand how being Jewish factored into how he became who he is as well as how he tells his stories.

I listened to the audio version, which was satisfactory but I am the type of reader who probably prefers nonfiction in paper form for note-taking purposes. My only complaint, a small one, is that I would have preferred a female performer throughout the book since the book was written by a woman. I like Molly Haskell's work and her authorship was as big a factor in my interest as the object, Steven Spielberg. So to hear Haskell's words in a male voice just bothered me. That is my opinion, however, and should not be taken as a negative comment about the work Johnny Heller did here.

If a reader understands and is willing to approach this book for what it is, I would highly recommend this to everyone with an interest in film, Jewish Studies and contemporary intellectual history. There is enough here for a fan who would prefer a fandom-type bio to be satisfied as long as they remember that that is not the work's primary aim.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.… (mere)