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Without Groucho Marx, modern comedy would be unrecognisable. With his painted-on moustache, ever-present cigar, loping walk, and instant put-downs, he achieved an iconic status. His comic routines have enthralled audiences, impressed critics, and inspired a number of academic theses. But what of Julius, the man behind the greasepaint? In this, the first major biography since the comedian's death, Stefan Kanfer suggests that the distinction between Groucho and Julius was never a simple one.
The author traces Groucho's difficulties back to his childhood: as the third of five brothers to an ambitious mother, Groucho found himself neglected in favour of the others. It was only with success on the stage that he could win his mother Minnie's approval. In later years, his relationships with women were rarely successful--he married on three occasions, each time alienating his wife with his relentless criticism. By the end of his life, Groucho was a lonely man, living with a woman who, many of his relatives claimed, was interested only in his money.
To reinforce his theories about Groucho's character, Kanfer resorts to speculation rather too often, as when he asks "Was he so marked by Minnie's dominance ... that he felt compelled to tyrannize and humiliate any woman who ventured too close?" However, unlike many revisionary biographies of iconic figures, Kanfer's book does not dwell exclusively upon the murkier aspects of his subject's life. It is clear throughout that the author has a deep respect for Groucho, and he takes any excuse to quote choice lines, making for an account that is both appropriately funny and necessarily poignant. --John Oates
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From Publishers Weekly
According to this engrossing, exhaustively researched biography, Groucho Marx (1890-1977) was a grouch who merged his raffish public persona with his dour, peevish private self. Former Time cinema critic Kanfer presents Julius Henry Marx as a browbeating spouse who drove his three wives to alcoholism or heavy drinking, and to divorce. Though he could be an endearing parent, his aloofness and fault-finding alienated his son and two daughters, in Kanfer's verdict. Groucho remained a perpetually insecure "infantile grownup," Kanfer avers, because of his troubled relationship with his aggressive stage mother, Minnie, who took eldest son Chico (Leonard) as her pet, and thought Groucho unattractive and let him know it. This is not a debunking biography; on the contrary, Kanfer calls Groucho the father of modern comedy, whose influence extends from M*A*S*H to Jerry Seinfeld to Woody Allen to daily conversation. Although Kanfer tries to warm up to his subject on a personal level, Groucho comes off as a thoroughly dislikable misogynist who nursed lifelong grudges against his children, wives, managers and compatriots. Long stretches of this bio make for painful, even depressing reading, despite a truckload of gemlike anecdotes, incisive mini-biographies of all the Marx Brothers and invaluable film and stage criticism. Still, the book's first half, which follows the brothers' comic quartet from struggling vaudeville act to stardom, is exhilarating. Photos. Agent, Kathy Robbins. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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