Tag: “Paul Newman: A Life”

Paul Newman died a year ago today, which is as notable an occasion as I can think of for updating this woefully dormant page.

First, catching up on some old-ish business.

Here’s the podcast of my July appearance on Live Wire!, which was enormous fun.

I’ve got two reviews to share as well, both kind and flattering:

“Paul Newman:  A Life” (Oak Hill Gazette (Austin, TX), 9/9/09)

“Life of a Legend” (Internet Review of Books, 9/09)

And here’s a TV-watching tip.  If you’re in the Portland area and an early riser, catch me tomorrow morning (Sunday, September 27) at 6:30 am on NW 32’s “Outlook Portland,” when I will sit with Rick Emerson for what turned out to be one of the best interviewing experiences I’ve ever had.

Finally, the UK edition of the book is on sale in a week or so.  That’s the jacket above.  I, naturally, prefer the sexy, sexy American edition, but I preferred the American edition of “Rat Pack Confidential” and the Brits did bang-up business with their version, so….

Had a nice review last week in the Boston Phoenix:  “Newman’s Own:  Mainstream Life, Good Read”

Then Parade Magazine picked the book as one of its “Great Summer Reads.”

And just today I spent an hour talking Newman on WOSU in Columbus, Ohio.  You can listen/download here.

A few new (or at least newish) reviews to throw on the bonfire:

“On the Beach” — Hour magazine (Canada), June 18

“Paul Newman:  Actor Laureate” — Examiner.com, June 9

“The Unknowable Paul Newman” — Toronto Globe and Mail, June 2 (the only negative review so far, and from a guy who, though I admire and respect him, wrote a Nicole Kidman bio that was an incomprehensible, embarrassing mess, so….)

And this note:  On Monday I’ll be talking to the folks from the Oregon Writers Colony at a free, open-to-the-public event at Looking Glass Books in Portland’s groovy Sellwood neighborhood.  Kickoff at 7pm.

Friday night I was the guest on the twin installments of Strange Love Live, the popular Portland-based webcast that deals with tech issues and other aspects of popular culture each week on the interwebs.  The hosts, Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal, have an inordinately cool setup in their Sellwood home — a real professional class studio that even includes a small (but deeply committed!) live audience.

Anyway, we talked tech and the newspaper and book businesses in the first part and Paul Newman and the Timbers Army in the second.  These things are long, but I hear they’re good, so….

This weekend’s notices:

“A Hot Book About Cool Hand Luke” — New York Times News Syndicate (via Taipei Times), June 7

Movie Talk —  KBOO radio, June 5

“Books:  ‘Paul Newman:  A Life'” — Washington Times, June 7

And a couple others that I’d missed:

“‘Paul Newman:  A Life'” — Edge Boston, May 27

“Paul Newman Biography Shows Why Millions Loved Him” — Palm Beach Post, May 28

And my interview on KPCC’s “Air Talk” with Larry Mantle from June 5 plus an appearance on WCPN — in Cleveland, Newman’s home town — with “Around Noon” host Jim Goldurs.

The Kansas City Star, May 24

New York Post, May 24 (This one is especially amusing/irritating as the writer laments the tabloid publicity surrounding the book in the early days of its release without acknowledging that it was instigated by the Post.)

New York Daily News, May 24

And a few words about the audio book edition in this round up from the News Chief of Winter Haven, Florida.

Thus say the Milanese, some of the world’s great opera fanatics, when they’re off to see a new production.

In the same spirit, I invite all my readers in the Portland area to the readings and signings I’ll be doing in support of “Paul Newman:  A Life” this week and next.

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, I’ll be at the Portland Art Museum at an event sponsored by the Oregonian, the Northwest Film Center and Powell’s books, who’ll be selling copies.

On Wednesday, May 27, at 7:30 I’ll be at Annie Bloom’s Books in Multnomah Village (my manor, as it happens) doing the same.

Would be delighted to see you all at either one.

The gavels are still ringing down around the country:

“‘Paul Newman: A Life'” — The Christian Science Monitor, May 16 (The same writer, Stephen Humphries, has more to say about the book in this entry on his blog.)

“Paul Newman:  A Life in Movies, Theater and Salad Dressing” — Time, May 19

“The Book on Newman” — Westport Magazine, June 2009

And here’s a mini-featurette from the New York Times Book Review in honor of the daffiest news of all: the book appeared as #13 on the nonfiction hardback bestseller list. (Note that the printed Times runs these things a week later, so that, apparently, this won’t appear in the paper until May 24.)

“Newman’s Blue Eyes Roved During ‘Butch Cassidy’ Filming” — Bloomberg News, May 17

The post below was starting to get a bit long and unwieldy, so I thought I’d break out this second batch on its own. As before, most complimentary on top, and downward from there.

“Hello….Newman!” — PowellsBooks.Blog — May 9

“Newman’s Own Appeal” — Washington Post, May 9

(There’s also a podcast of me talking with an editor from the Post’s Book World.)

“Graceful tribute to one-of-a-kind man Paul Newman” — Seattle Times, May 10

Oregonian Film Critic Traces Paul Newman’s Artistic Journey — The Oregonian, May 8 (This one is in a category of its own, not only because it is particularly kind, but because — and this is a mite embarassing — I work there.  If it’s any consolation, I’ve had a bad review in The Oregonian in my time.)

Two clips from Tuesday:

KATU’s AM Northwest and KGW’s Live @ 7

(And, if you missed it, my testy “Inside Edition” interview, from which this charming image was screengrabbed.)

Because nothing in art really happens until critics weigh in on it, I share with you this canonical list of reviews of “Paul Newman: A Life,” ranked, as one would rank them, from kindest to least kind.

As someone who plies the critical trade, I shan’t comment further. But I can tell you this: I see what my brothers and sisters in critique have done here, all of ’em.

“Book details Paul Newman’s charmed, and charming, ‘Life'” — USA Today, May 5

On Bookshelves: “Paul Newman: A Life” — Movieline, May 5

“‘Paul Newman,’ in Shawn Levy’s new biography, gets a rich, readable, respectful treatment” — Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 3

“Shawn Levy: ‘Paul Newman: A Life'” — Willamette Week, May 6

Publisher’s Weekly, March 30 (you need to scroll down a bit for it)

“Inside Track On Newman’s ‘Life'” — Hartford Courant, May 3

“Cool Hand Paul” — Chicago Sun-Times, May 3″

ALSO: A q-and-a interview which Ray Pride of Movie City News conducted with me via e-mail — May 6. (Here’s an altered and expanded version of this from the Chicago New City alt weekly.

ALSO: The Daily Mail of London has run four heavily edited (and, frankly, salaciously packaged and clumsily headlined) excerpts from the book. They are here: May 2, May 4, May 5, May 6. (I can’t really recommend these as good reads — if I’d wanted to rearrange my sentences the way these folks have, I’d’ve done so in the book — but they do offer fascinatingly strange examples of the way the tabloids and the English journalistic sensibility operate.)

“Paul Newman: A Life” drops, as the cool kidz say, on Tuesday, May 5, and I’m going to gather up little bits of this and that from around the web. Up until now it’s been gossip leaks and little previews like my appearance at Cinema 21 to introduce “Hud” last weekend. But this first week of proper publication is going to be fairly busy.

First, here’s a pirated video of my appearance on “Inside Edition” which I’d neglected to post previously.

On Tuesday morning, publication day, I’ll be appearing on “AM Northwest” on Portland’s KATU (I can’t tivo because DISH Network and KATU are involved in some sort of financial blinking contest). That evening, I’ll appear on KGW’s nifty “Live @ 7.”

On Wednesday during the day, I’ll be on WMJI’s “Lanigan & Malone” program in Cleveland (NOTE: This one actually happened Tuesday), then on KPOJ’s morning show here in Portland, and then on WDWS’s “Gary O’Brien & Friends” in Champaign, IL.

On Wednesday night, I’ll be presenting the book at Powell’s City of Books in downtown Portland and then repairing to the nearby Blitz Bar to enjoy a malted beverage and the company of friends. If you’re reading this, you’re invited.

Finally, for this week, on Thursday I’ll be on the radio with Maurice Boland, who broadcasts throughout Europe from Mallora, the lucky so-and-so.

I’ll post reviews — even the unflattering ones — as they appear.

Nearly four years after I first had the idea to write it, my latest book, “Paul Newman:  A Life,” is entering the publishing phase.  In this case, this means watching tabloid media grab the tiniest bits of scandal in the book and declare my sober, nerdy, reverential book an “explosive,” “edgy” “tell-all.”  (To be called a sensationalist by Page Six and Inside Edition is an astounding experience, let me tell you.)

Anyway, here’s a blog entry from Mad About Movies discussing the bizarre tabloidization of the book, and here’s a Publisher’s Weekly review by someone who actually read it and isn’t trying to sell papers or commercial time by distorting its content (it’s about halfway down the page), and, finally, a story from Aaron Mesh at Willamette Week, who also read the book and chatted with me about this madness the other night.

More insanity to come, I’m sure.

LATE ADD:  Phil Nugent, a flim critic and blogger whom I don’t know from Adam, has written about the tabloidization of the book — for which I thank him.