Penning the story of his life, the master entertainer mesmerizes the readers yet again with a heart warming, awe inspiring and motivating account of the life and times of a genius that was Charles Chaplin. Every page of his book, just like his movies, is sure to move you into fits of laughter or throws of cries, but never ever fails to entertain you.
Brilliantly written, Chaplin employs all the skills of his years of script writing to this book and makes it come alive in readers' minds. One would almost feel like they are watching another one of a Chaplin Classic.
The book starts with an account of Chaplin family and the tough growing years of Charlie Chaplin, also the years that shaped up his personality and cinematic perspectives. At no point in time, Chaplin tries to glorifies his tough growing up years as some of the other "rags to riches" celebrity stories do. He remains as humble in his book as he has throughout his life. In fact, as one would find out that it is his strong roots contributed a lot to his endearing nature and optimistic perspective towards life in general and was a key inspiration for his movies.
As one moves from his childhood years to his early days in circus, broadway and comedy troupes and theater one notices that even with his gifts,he had to struggle at every step as he failed to compromise on what he thought was the right thing to do. It was left to the foresight of certain individuals who could see his merit and encouraged him.
The book also reveals another side of Chaplin - his strong family values and the importance he gave to his relationships. Of course he has had this share of casual flings and marriages but the strong bonds he shared throughout his life with his brother Sydney and his mother gives you an insight of the emotional side of the man. Some of his memoirs of his mother are simply beautiful and the fact that for both the brothers, the well being of their mother and the cognizance of her ordeals while bringing them up remained the most important reasons guiding their decisions tells you how strong they felt about their mother and each other.
His tryst with famedom reveals another interesting aspect about him, the man clearly had no charm for money and riches. His honest confession that he had millions stacked up in the accounts and he was clueless on what to do with it for most part of his life again points out to the strong connection with his growing up years where getting a decent one time meal was a luxury.Throughout his book he makes an earnest attempt to depict his follies, weaknesses and guilty passions as truly as possible, without any justification.
I think if some one ever makes a movie about Charlie Chaplin, it would be be almost like reading through this book. Enchanting, mesmerizing and endearing...the qualities that Charlie Chaplin wooed the world with.
A must read for me......
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