Rating: 
Summary: uneven greatness
Review: this collection is worth the price of admission to two profiles--johnny carson and marlon brando. thoughtfully assembled, this "greatest hits" made me not feel so bad when i threw out old, favorite issues of the new yorker, only to discover some of those much beloved profiles in this collection. yet for some space reasons, many of the multipart profiles (i.e.the schizophrenic "slyvia frumpkin" or the psychiatrist "aaron") don't have a home here. my plea, as a reader, is that the new yorker should annually produce these anthologies. oh yeah, the cover is absolutely brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: uneven greatness
Review: this collection is worth the price of admission to two profiles--johnny carson and marlon brando. thoughtfully assembled, this "greatest hits" made me not feel so bad when i threw out old, favorite issues of the new yorker, only to discover some of those much beloved profiles in this collection. yet for some space reasons, many of the multipart profiles (i.e.the schizophrenic "slyvia frumpkin" or the psychiatrist "aaron") don't have a home here. my plea, as a reader, is that the new yorker should annually produce these anthologies. oh yeah, the cover is absolutely brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: "Life Stories" Hit the Mark
Review: This is a compilation of some of the best Profiles to appear in the New Yorker over the last 80 years. Sometimes you will be familiar with the person being profiled, sometimes not, but in all cases you will find the stories entertaining and the writing, superb.My favorite Profile happens to be of one of the non-famous persons, George H. Hunter ("Mr. Hunter's Grave," by Joseph Mitchell). It is a story not so much about a person but of a long-forgotten community, and a way of life. Despite being the longest entry in the audio collection, I rewound the tape three or four times to listen to it again and again - it was that good. Some of the celebrity stories are just as compelling, although, being celebrities, many aspects of their lives are already well known. But this sometimes opened a window into foreshadowing that could not have been appreciated by the reader (or even the writer) at the time the piece was done. One example of this concerns Ernest Hemingway ("How Do You Like It Now, Gentlemen?", by Lillian Ross). Hidden somewhere in the middle of the Profile, Ross mentions the fact that Hemingway's father had committed suicide. This had no major relation to the story in general, and was probably forgotten by most readers at the time, but we have the perspective of history. And it becomes more than just a tidbit when we realize that Hemingway, too, committed suicide 10 years later, in 1961. Another eyebrow-raising instance came when hearing about Marlon Brando ("The Duke In His Domain," by Truman Capote). Capote was on location with Brando in Japan as Brando was taking part in the filming of "Sayonara." Brando at one point confesses to Capote that he had to lose weight for the part, and that he wasn't there yet. He still had 10-15 pounds to go. Despite this, the dinners delivered to Brando's hotel room are not those of one looking to cut down; to the contrary, Brando could only gain weight eating the food being sent up to him! Hearing Brando fuss about what he should and should not eat and Capote take note of the rich foods on the tray, it almost seems fake, as if Capote knew how Brando was going to end up. But, of course, he didn't. The story was written in 1957! But what makes this collection great, though, is the quality of the writing itself. It matters not the subject: actor, comedian, dancer, writer, boxer, even a dog! The common thread running through all the Profiles is the way in which each story is told. Always lucid, always interesting, the stories are less stories and more like works of art. If you enjoy exceptional writing, this collection is for you. Highly recommended. Five stars.
Rating:
Summary: For All You People Watchers
Review: You have heard of the obnoxious person who, upon meeting a biographer who has given up the last 25 years of his life to write the definitive biography of say Queen Elizabeth II, asks, "Now tell me, what's she REALLY like??" Friends, I am that person, which is one reason I always find New Yorker Profiles an unalloyed delight. Rightly or wrongly, I always believe I am getting the real insider stuff. David Remnick makes thoughtful selections in this anthology. He has covered a time period from the '30s to the present, some very famous people and some you have never heard of, and the same is true for the authors of the Profiles. I fully intended to make a leisurely tour through the book, picking and choosing a Profile here and there for a short read. Once I read the very first one, Joe Mitchell's "Mr. Hunter's Grave," I was hooked and read the whole book from start to finish. So much for leisurely reading! It is hopeless to attempt to select a favorite; all have their own merits. I was particularly fascinated by Truman Capote's insightful piece on Marlon Brando. Capote's flamboyant personality frequently overshadows his tremendous skills as an interpretive writer. Jean Acocella's study of Mikhail Baryshnikov is an excellent in-depth study of both the man and the artist. John Lahr's Profile on Roseanne is almost scary (or at least Roseanne is!) Joe Mitchell's, "Mr. Hunter's Grave" is so beautifully rendered you can understand why The New Yorker never took him off salary even after Joe suffered the granddaddy of all writer's blocks; he didn't submit an article for fourteen years! The New Yorker always said Joe had a "work in progress." "Life Stories" is worth it at twice the price. Some of these profiles are unobtainable (unless you have a roomful of old New Yorkers). This is a book you will go back to again and again.
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