Synopses & Reviews
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year
The first biography of The New Yorker's influential, powerful, and controversial film critic.
A decade after her death, Pauline Kael remains the most important figure in film criticism today, in part due to her own inimitable style and power within the film community and in part due to the enormous influence she has exerted over an entire subsequent generation of film critics. During her tenure at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1991 she was a tastemaker, a career maker, and a career breaker. Her brash, vernacular writing style often made for an odd fit at the stately New Yorker.
Brian Kellow gives us a richly detailed look at one of the most astonishing bursts of creativity in film history and a rounded portrait of this remarkable (and often relentlessly driven) woman. Pauline Kael is a book that will be welcomed by the same audience that made Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution and Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls bestsellers, and by anyone who is curious about the power of criticism in the arts.
Review
andldquo; A vivid portrait of a Broadway diva who shone brighter and sang louder than anyone else.andrdquo; andmdash;
The Washington Post BookWorld andldquo; Dishy and seamless; he understands the dynamics of the theater world and makes you feel the exhilaration of an evolving hit and the frustrations inherent in working with a performer like Merman.andrdquo;andmdash;The New York Times Book Review
andldquo; A wonderfully vivid portrait of a unique Broadway star. You can almost hear Mermanandrsquo;s trumpet voice with every turn of the page.andrdquo;andmdash;John Kander, composer of Chicago and Cabaret
andldquo;A fascinating read and a thorough theatrical history of her time. Loved it!andrdquo;andmdash;Jane Powell
Review
andldquo;Absorbing.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] smart and incisive biographyandhellip;. [Moviegoers] are in for a colossal eye-opening. [Kael's] love for film has no present-day counterpartandhellip;. Mr. Kellowandrsquo;s clear, independent view of his subject is his bookandrsquo;s most valuable surpriseandhellip;.Kael liked to disparage what she called andlsquo;saphead objectivity.andrsquo; Bur Mr. Kellow is no saphead, and he makes objectivity a great virtue.andquot;
Review
andldquo;This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;To appreciate Kaelandrsquo;s trailblazing, you have to see it in its broader context. Luckily, that backdrop is filled in with surefooted sophistication by Brian Kellow in
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a fair-minded and deeply reported Kael biography.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Kael was a master at interpretation, and [Pauline Kael:and#160;A Life in the Dark] is a highly successful interpretation of the storied critic....A must-read for any devotee of film; compellingly written and recommended for all libraries.andquot;
Review
"For a biography to do justice to a complex personality and a great mind such as Kaeland#8217;s, extensive research must be matched by acute perception. That requirement is fully, even joyously, met here."
and#160;
Review
andquot;Kellow performs biographical magic, telling her story mostly through [Kaels] most famous (and notorious) reviews of some of the landmark films of the 60s and 70s.andquot;
Review
andldquo;I fell on Kellowandrsquo;s book like a teenage girl on a lost volume of the
Twilight saga and found it quite as riveting as teens find anything to do with Bella.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A smart and eminently readable examination of the life and career of one of the 20th centuryandrsquo;s most influential movie critics.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[Kellow] brings a wise and sweeping vision to [Kael's] artistic mentality and her enduring legacy.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Fun, fair, and fluently written, [
Pauline Kael:and#160;A Life in the Dark] is an edifying read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, author Brian Kellow offers a making-of story as engaging as [Kaels ] criticismandhellip;.A colorful, evenhanded appreciation of one of filmandrsquo;s most influential critics.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The fact that most of us know little about [Kael's ] upbringing of her private life makes this an especially intriguing biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Compellingandhellip;thrillingly written and exhaustively researchedandhellip;.Genius.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Kellow evocatively captures the blooming of film culture in the early 1960s, and the sobriety with which Kael took over the critical pulpitandhellip;.Kellow not only grasps the significance of his subject, but invokes the pace and energy of [Kael's] singular styleandhellip;.good, dishy fun.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Kellow has reconstructed Kael's 'life in the dark'....The result is a joy to read....[I]t's a fascinating book.andquot;
Review
andldquo;[E]xhaustively researched, beautifully writtenandhellip;.Kellow has told [Kael's] life in incredible detailandhellip;.I found [
Pauline Kael:andnbsp;A Life in the Dark] enthralling because it vividly recreates a world I was part of, which seems now very distant. It is also because Kellow has been generous in quoting [Kael's] sensuous, percussive, often wise proseandhellip;.Pauline was a galvanizing presence, and Kellow has brought her back with overwhelming intensity.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a very good biography.andquot;
Review
andquot;At last, a biography of the highly influential
New Yorker film critic.andquot;
Review
andldquo;The [present] I hope someone will send me is Brian Kellowandrsquo;s
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Kellow, an erudite movie loverandhellip;writes beautifully and dexterously interweaves the story of a career long-thwarted with a sensitive reading of [Kael's] youthful enthusiasm and intellectual growth. To an impressive degree, he gets inside the head of a precocious, fearsomely smart young woman from small-town California and is able to describe what drove her, which authors turned her on (James, Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, Melville, Woolf, Proust), her love of jazz and her distaste for aesthetic, religious and political dogma. So thoroughly does he portray the development of Paulineandrsquo;s character and passionate engagement with matters aesthetic that it comes as no surprise she was able to burst onto the scene, at the relatively advanced age of 48, as one of the most dynamic cultural arbiters of the past centuryandhellip;.Kellow admirably brings Paulineandrsquo;s wit, insight and passion to life on the page and has made at least one critic nostalgic for the days when heavyweight critical battles raged and at least one of us lived a life worthy of a biographyandhellip;.[An] excellent biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Kellow matches extensive research with acute perception in his sensitive and definitive biography of Pauline Kael, Americaandrsquo;s foremost, and most controversial, movie critic.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Brian Kellowandrsquo;s biography of [Pauline Kael] is a fascinating and enlightening read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] finely balanced biographyandhellip;[N]ot only will you not be disappointed with Kellowandrsquo;s intrepid research, youandrsquo;ll also be rewarded by his rich, close reading of her reviews (and the stories behind the writing of them) that does marvelous justice to Pauline Kaelandrsquo;s exhilarating gift for writing on the movies. Both, her admirers and her detractors could not have asked for a more satisfying biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Absorbing.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] smashing first biography of the famed
New Yorker critic.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Compelling.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] richly detailed biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Throws radiant light on the renowned movie critic.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;[A] fascinating new biographyandhellip;.[Kellow] captures [Kael's] best passages and most heartless insults and puts them in context.andrdquo;
Review
Review
“Compelling…thrillingly written and exhaustively researched….Genius.”
The Playlist
Review
“Brian Kellow’s biography of [Pauline Kael] is a fascinating and enlightening read.”
Whitney Matheson, USA Today
Review
Review
“Compelling.”
Review
“[A] richly detailed biography.”
Review
“Illuminating.”
The New Yorker (Reviewers' favorites)
Review
Editor's and Critic's Pick for 2011 Ben Brandtley, The New York Times
Review
"Mr. Kellow’s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.” Scott Eyman, The Wall Street Journal
Review
“This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.”
The Wall Street Journal (Recommended Gift)
Review
“[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.”
Entertainment Weekly (Best Nonfictions Books of 2011)
Review
“[M]eticulously researched.”
Slate.com
Review
andldquo;[A] terrific new biographyandhellip; [Kael's early life ] was a revelation to me, thanks to Kellowandrsquo;s ace research.andrdquo;
Review
“Mr. Kellow throws a great deal of light on the famous critic’s heretofore mysterious ways.”
The Portland Mercury
Review
andldquo;In
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, author Brian Kellow offers a making-of story as engaging as her criticism. Itandrsquo;s not easy featandmdash;whatandrsquo;s less dramatic than scribbling into the night?andmdash;but Kellow tapped [Kael's] friends and foes and her writing while developing a colorful, even handed appreciation of one of filmandrsquo;s most influential criticsandhellip;.[An] eye-opening biography.andrdquo;
Review
"Kellow has reconstructed Kael's 'life in the dark'....The result is a joy to read....[I]t's a fascinating book."
Los Angeles Magazine (Critic's Picks, November 2011 Issue)
Review
“
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a very good biography."
Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
“The [present] I hope someone will send me is Brian Kellow’s
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.”
Philip French, The Observer (U.K.)
Review
“Absorbing.”
Toronto Star
Review
“Compelling.” The Onion A.V. Club
Review
andldquo;[Pauline Kael] got into my bloodstream more than any other critic. So I have been waiting most of my life for a smart, insightful biography like [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] to take me beyond and beneath the hypnotic thrill of her prose.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Mr. Kellowandrsquo;s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Mr. Kellow throws a great deal of light on the famous criticandrsquo;s heretofore mysterious ways.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[An] entertaining and insightful biography, as much a study of her criticism as a narrative of her life. . . . [Pauline] Kael emerges from [Kellowandrsquo;s] biography as a great cinematic character, a kind of Citizen Kane, with a life lived and shaped by the dark.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Illuminating.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[
Pauline Kael is an] entertaining and insightful biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[
Pauline Kael is an] excellent Biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[Brian] Kellow finds the emotional core of [Pauline] Kaelandrsquo;s personaandhellip;.Kellow is quickly becoming a film fanandrsquo;s dream biographerandhellip;. That Kellow chooses to write in calm, unshowy prose is both astute as a journalistic technique and integral to the bookandrsquo;s aesthetic successandhellip;.Kellowandrsquo;s Kael transcends mere artistic contrarianism and resembles a sort of impassioned duelist.andrdquo;
Review
"[Brian Kellow] handles this difficult, unsympathetic personality with an admirable evenhandedness."
and#160;
Review
and#8220;A must-read for any devotee of film.and#8221;
and#160;
Review
"Kellow performs biographical magic ... Like Kaeland#8217;s own books, this bio is a page-turner."
~Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
A smart and eminently readable examination of the life and career of one of the twentieth century s most influential movie critics.
Los Angeles Times Engrossing and thoroughly researched.
Entertainment Weekly A
New York Times Book ReviewNotable Book of 2011
The first major biography of the most influential, powerful, and controversial film critic of the twentieth century
Pauline Kael was, in the words of Entertainment Weekly's movie reviewer Owen Gleiberman, "the Elvis or Beatles of film criticism." During her tenure at The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991, she was the most widely read and, often enough, the most provocative critic in America. In this first full-length biography of the legend who changed the face of film criticism, acclaimed author Brian Kellow (author ofCan I Go Now?: The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent)gives readers a richly detailed view of Kael's remarkable life from her youth in rural California to her early struggles to establish her writing career to her peak years at The New Yorker.
"
Synopsis
More than twenty years after her death, Ethel Merman continues to set the standard for American musical theater. The stories about the supremely talented, famously strong-willed, fearsomely blunt, and terrifyingly exacting woman are stuff of legend. But who was Ethel Agnes Zimmermann, really? Brian Kellowandrsquo;s definitive biography of the great Merman is superb, and the first account to examine both the artist and the woman with as much critical rigor as empathy. Through dozens of interviews with her colleagues, friends, and family members, Kellow traces the arc of her life and her thirty-year singing career to reveal many surprising facts about Broadwayandrsquo;s biggest star.
Synopsis
The first major biography of the most influential, powerful, and controversial film critic of the twentieth century
Pauline Kael was, in the words of Entertainment Weekly's movie reviewer Owen Gleiberman, andquot;the Elvis or Beatles of film criticism.andquot; During her tenure at The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991, she was the most widely read and, often enough, the most provocative critic in America. In this first full-length biography of the legend who changed the face of film criticism, acclaimed author Brian Kellow gives readers a richly detailed view of Kael's remarkable lifeandmdash;from her youth in rural California to her early struggles to establish her writing career to her peak years at The New Yorker.
About the Author
Brian Kellow is the features editor of Opera News, where his column, andldquo;On the Beat,andrdquo; appears monthly. He is the author of The Bennetts: An Acting Family and the coauthor of Canandrsquo;t Help Singing: The Life of Eileen Farrell. A classically trained pianist, Kellow has also written for Opera and Playbill, among others. He lives in New York City.