The Early Word: New Non-Fiction For the Week of June 9, 2008

Bios and downward spirals... 

Fame, fortune, beauty, tragedy, romantic conquests, sexual ambiguity.... In a long-awaited biography that promises to “reveal what went on behind the shiny blond facade,” according to Liz Smith of the New York Post, David Kaufman’s Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door chronicles the life and career of Doris Mary Anne von Kappelhoff, renamed just before she began fronting for the Les Brown Band in 1940. Although Day was continually portrayed in the press and via public relations as a contented wife and mother who symbolized virtuous America to the rest of the world — especially in her heyday, the perceived era of innocence of the 1950s and early 1960s — Kaufman depicts a tireless workaholic (from 1947 to 1968, she made 39 films and recorded more than 600 songs) who, of course, had her demons and a private life that she fought to keep private. From four failed marriages and a son (music producer Terry Melcher) who was "more of a brother or father-figure than a son to his mother," to anecdotes about a memorable cast of players in Day's life (including Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant, and Rock Hudson), whatever had been, had been, indeed. 

In stiff competition with Day more for your bio buck this week than for 20th century musical sweetheart is Canadian Classical wunderkind Glenn Gould and pioneering hip-hop musician, DJ and original turntablist Grandmaster Flash. In Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano, Katie Hafner wades through the brilliant pianist’s eccentricities — the germ phobia, the grunting and whistling while performing — to focus on his great obsession for particular piano, a Steinway concert grand known as CD 318, from discovery to damage during transport. The book is also a story of the nearly blind tuner Verne Edquist, who lovingly attended to CD 318 for more than two decades, and the factory where the piano was built, making Romance a treat for Gould fans, a book for armchair musicologists, and a rich experience for those who enjoy a remarkable tale well told.

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for San Diego Union Tribune Books (R.I.P.). For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores, and most recently was purchasing manager for San Diego Technical Books. …

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