Rating: 
Summary: One Note Eddie
Review: Mr. Sikov biography of Peter Sellers bleats its way between celeb dish and tawdry detail. Gossip and the word "emponymous" fill the empty space between plot summaries of Sellers work. If you're interested in learning more about Mr. Sellers, watch him work. If you're more interested in what Liza and the gang have to say, pick this up.
Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional
Review: Peter Sellers has been the subject of more than a few books, some significantly better than others. Aside from Graham Stark's beautiful memoir "Remembering Peter Sellers" (still only available in the U.K., unfortunately), this is the best. Certainly it is the most comprehensive, in part because it works from, and builds upon, the many books that came before it.In more ways than one, "Mr. Strangelove" is not a light read. Sikov's research is extensive and detail is heavy, but his writing is surprisingly nimble over the 300+ page length. The life of Sellers was fraught with private and public turmoil, and a significant career dry spell. Some previous studies of him and his work treated both with almost cruel insensitivity (and I haven't even read Roger Lewis' much-pilloried "Life and Death of..."), emphasizing the pain he brought into the lives of others. Meanwhile, memoirs like his son Michael Sellers' "P.S. I Love You" and Stark's book, while certainly willing to admit to Peter's faults, made a case for his personal pain and his virtues. Happily Sikov understands Sellers' good side as well as his bad one. Though this is definitely a warts-and-all portrait of the man - his bad behavior on sets and his unhappy relationships with wives and children are not spared us - and sometimes painful to read, it is also sensitive, careful to stress Peter's humanity. (His fresh interviews with some of Sellers' colleagues do much to acheive this end.) In the end, this is the story of a man who, in Sikov's words, had an "essentially good heart". Understandably some will be (and have been, to judge from other reviews) frustrated by the extremely detailed coverage Sellers' work, especially his films, are given. But to do justice to the life of such a gifted performer requires a close look at his work, and "Mr. Strangelove" covers his work more compellingly than any previous biography has, particularly where his more obscure films are concerned. "Mr. Strangelove" is a full, rich portrait of a tragicomic life, one that will be compelling reading for those with even a mild interest in its subject...though once it's been read, "mild" may well turn to "major".
Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: Peter Sellers has been the subject of more than a few books, some significantly better than others. Aside from Graham Stark's beautiful memoir "Remembering Peter Sellers" (still only available in the U.K., unfortunately), this is the best. Certainly it is the most comprehensive, in part because it works from, and builds upon, the many books that came before it. In more ways than one, "Mr. Strangelove" is not a light read. Sikov's research is extensive and detail is heavy, but his writing is surprisingly nimble over the 300+ page length. The life of Sellers was fraught with private and public turmoil, and a significant career dry spell. Some previous studies of him and his work treated both with almost cruel insensitivity (and I haven't even read Roger Lewis' much-pilloried "Life and Death of..."), emphasizing the pain he brought into the lives of others. Meanwhile, memoirs like his son Michael Sellers' "P.S. I Love You" and Stark's book, while certainly willing to admit to Peter's faults, made a case for his personal pain and his virtues. Happily Sikov understands Sellers' good side as well as his bad one. Though this is definitely a warts-and-all portrait of the man - his bad behavior on sets and his unhappy relationships with wives and children are not spared us - and sometimes painful to read, it is also sensitive, careful to stress Peter's humanity. (His fresh interviews with some of Sellers' colleagues do much to acheive this end.) In the end, this is the story of a man who, in Sikov's words, had an "essentially good heart". Understandably some will be (and have been, to judge from other reviews) frustrated by the extremely detailed coverage Sellers' work, especially his films, are given. But to do justice to the life of such a gifted performer requires a close look at his work, and "Mr. Strangelove" covers his work more compellingly than any previous biography has, particularly where his more obscure films are concerned. "Mr. Strangelove" is a full, rich portrait of a tragicomic life, one that will be compelling reading for those with even a mild interest in its subject...though once it's been read, "mild" may well turn to "major".
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant black comedy of a life
Review: Peter Sellers was a genius and I love to watch his movies. I was wary about reading a biography of him, however, simply because he was such an impossible human being. But this book treats his life as the stuff of black comedy, and it works. We're not expected to love or sympathize with him, which is liberating. We just watch him rip through the world like a supernatural phenomena, making jokes, marriages, movies, divorces, heart attacks and headlines. Yet, by the time the book was over, I found myself weirdly fond of Sellers and sorry that he was gone. Sikov is wonderful with the details of show business. He's especially good on The Goon Show. If the book has a voice of wisdom, it's the great, irrepressible Spike Milligan. The accounts of the movies are terrific, not just the obvious ones like the Pink Panther films or LOLITA, but forgotten gems like I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK. Sikov's descriptions were good enough to send me back to the video store more than once. And his social history is terrific, too, a great, cracked history of the world of Sixties jet setters. This is a very, very funny book and easily the best actor biography since NOTES OF A COWARDLY LION by John Lahr. I can't recommend it too highly.
Rating:
Summary: As wild as any Sellers film...
Review: Sellers is a cipher to himself, but not to Sikov who paints a vivid portrait of a man whose talent is his instability. Wonderfully demented on-screen, Sellers is just plain demented off-camera. His family and friends soldier on as his co-stars coddle his eccentricities. Sellers appears to have become as crazy as his success would allow...and he was amazingly successful. After reading, I sat down and watched many of Sellers' films that I had not seen before, all now with more interest!
Rating:
Summary: As wild as any Sellers film...
Review: Sellers is a cipher to himself, but not to Sikov who paints a vivid portrait of a man whose talent is his instability. Wonderfully demented on-screen, Sellers is just plain demented off-camera. His family and friends soldier on as his co-stars coddle his eccentricities. Sellers appears to have become as crazy as his success would allow...and he was amazingly successful. After reading, I sat down and watched many of Sellers' films that I had not seen before, all now with more interest!
Rating:
Summary: The madness behind the¿um, madness
Review: The thesis of Ed Sikov's Mr. Strangelove is clear: Peter Sellers was a looney. And we're not speaking metaphorically. He was unequivocally insane. True, his accomplishments are mind-boggling. He delivered some of the funniest performances in film history, and is best known today for the Pink Panther films, Dr. Strangelove, and Lolita-plus, Stanley Kubrick worshipped him. But his personal life was a mess: He was married four times, he was rotten to his kids, and he was, by most accounts, a real pain in the ... to work with. He was also terrified of the color purple (the actual color-nothing to do with Oprah). Sikov presents an extremely funny and well-researched picture of the rise and fall of a man who had a multitude of identities on the big screen but had no distinct personality himself. He tried to find his identity in genuine rock-star style: over-the-top sex with gorgeous women, ridiculously expensive cars, and the purchase of a giant mechanical elephant. Looks good on paper, but keep in mind that Sellers managed to alienate just about everyone he came in contact with and almost died of a string of heart attacks at only 38 years old (he died at age 56). Meanwhile, Carrot Top lives on....
Rating: 
Summary: Not sure about this one.
Review: There is so much information in this book on the characters Peter played, but not so much follow through about his children and his wives. I don't need to read dialogue excerpts from movies; I can watch them. (There is even an anecdote about ski technique gone awry, with an expanation, while we are reminded elswhere on how many Beatles there were, and things like tension during their break up.) I suppose it might have been difficult to get some in depth information from Peter's children and former wives. What we do have reads like a travel log of a jetsetter gone bad. I wish there was more from his children's POV. The book covers more about his characters in the movies and on shows than about his encounters in his real life. To say that there was no Peter Sellers or that the man off stage was often depressed or on drugs is not enough for me. I know there must have been tons of horrific tales or encoutners, but it seems not everyone was talking to these authors.
Rating: 
Summary: The Real Face of Peter Sellers
Review: What with a film about Sellers's life and work to be shown on HBO this Decemeber, it only seems right that I, as a confirmed Sellers-aholic, weigh in on one of the two major books written about the man behind the many masks (The titled work on which the film was based, I have yet to read).
Peter Sellers onscreen was a delight to behold, even in his most mediocre films. Peter Sellers offscreen could be a monster to those around him, but this was all part of his many moods. A man-child with no distinct personality of his own, he found himself only through the roles he took on (Dr. Strangelove, Inspector Clouseau, Chauncy the Gardener).
Ed Sikov's book, which I read about a year ago, recounts all the triumph and tragedy, angst and ecstasy, and the many contradictions of Sellers the man and movie star. It reads like a sympathetic but unbiased take on the man and his work. Sikov goes at great length to show not only the horrible things that Sellers did, but also the wonderful things he did on occasion (while tempering this with the knowledge that Sellers expected much in return). I doubt a more honest and yet tender portrait of the man could be written.
Sikov doesn't shy from Sellers's problems, but he offers some insight into why they might have come to be: a distant father, a needy mother, and relatives who indulged the young boy, all the way to his last wife's abuse of their estate in order to kill herself with drugs. Throughout it all, Sellers is the central figure around which madness unravels, and unravele him as well. You come away from it feeling pity for Sellers because of the circumstances which contributed to his madness, but mindful as well of the lives he touched (for good or bad) with his talent and ego.
You won't find yourself embracing Sellers when you finish the book, but you won't find yourself eager to rid him from your pantheon of comedy heroes either. Peter Sellers was a walking contradiction, and Ed Sikov does his best to expose the many faces Sellers showed not only to the world at large but to those he loved in particular. A man of such genius deserves no less than to have his story honestly rendered, and "Mr. Strangelove" does that exceptionally.
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