Rating: 
Summary: Another compilation of trash and half-truths!
Review: Instead of a new slant on the life and work of Mario Lanza, we have been served another sleezy, trashy compilation of all previous Lanza myths. Quite a shame, as a truthful biography which would focus more on the mans music than the third generation gossip which keeps turning up seems to have been another missed opportunity traded in for the usual trash which has been printed about Lanza since his untimely death 40 years ago!
Rating: 
Summary: Book is accurate, but mostly re-hash of other books.
Review: It is amazing to me to read some of the reviews calling this book inaccurate, garbage, etc... Sorry folks, this book captures Lanza's life - the good and the bad and the sad. Most of what is here has been corroborated by Terry Robinson and Constantine Callinicos. This is NOT a tabloid piece. It just so happens that Lanza led a tabloid-like life. It is also not ALL negative, even though Lanza had many negatives in his life.Unfortunately, I purchased the book thinking I would gain more insight into Lanza's life. If you have (as I have) read Robinson's and Callinicos's books, there is not much that is different. On many occasions, these books are quoted from directly. Still, I enjoyed the book. Some new info, but not much.
Rating:
Summary: Book is accurate, but mostly re-hash of other books.
Review: It is amazing to me to read some of the reviews calling this book inaccurate, garbage, etc... Sorry folks, this book captures Lanza's life - the good and the bad and the sad. Most of what is here has been corroborated by Terry Robinson and Constantine Callinicos. This is NOT a tabloid piece. It just so happens that Lanza led a tabloid-like life. It is also not ALL negative, even though Lanza had many negatives in his life. Unfortunately, I purchased the book thinking I would gain more insight into Lanza's life. If you have (as I have) read Robinson's and Callinicos's books, there is not much that is different. On many occasions, these books are quoted from directly. Still, I enjoyed the book. Some new info, but not much.
Rating: 
Summary: Great biography of Lanza.
Review: Lanza led a difficult life. This book does not hide from that. It tells you the highs and lows of his life. It is a great read. Well researched.
Rating:
Summary: A mean-spirited work
Review: Mario Lanza has never received the biography his talent deserves, and this latest hatchet job will do nothing to enhance his reputation among serious music lovers. As someone who has studied Lanza's career very closely, and interviewed some of his associates, I find this biography completely wanting in all respects. Tenor In Exile fails miserably to capture the essence of the man. Mario Lanza was a colourful, larger-than-life extrovert who happened to possess the greatest tenor voice of the 20th century. A large claim indeed, but one that is held by people far more musically qualified than myself: Domingo, Licia Albanese, Dorothy Kirsten, and many other leading lights in the operatic world. Lanza was also a deeply troubled individual who never fully realised his enormous potential. But it would take a far greater analyst than Roland Bessette to understand what made this man tick. Missing completely in this unsympathetic and often sneering portrayal of the tenor is any sense of the man's sheer humanity, his love of life and the extraordinary burden of being Mario Lanza in the conformist America of the 1950s. Bessette conveys none of this, and as noted Lanza authority (and Amazon reviewer) Armando Cesari has pointed out, commits numerous inaccuracies to boot. As if this wasn't bad enough, Lawyer Bessette is also a poor wordsmith and his clunky, repetitious and mechanical style would be far better suited to legal tracts than writing biographies of the truly greats. My advice is to save your money until the definitive Lanza biography comes along.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Negativity!
Review: Mario Lanza was one of the greatest tenors of all time. I was only 7 when he died, but I remember listening to my sister's records of him, especially "The Student Prince", which I still have, along with some of his CD's and all his movies. This book seems to desicrate his memory--and all the happiness his wonderful voice brought to everyone. I enjoyed the pictures, but did not care for the tone of the book, which seemed unnecessarily negative. I agree with you, Damon! Your Dad was wonderful!
Rating:
Summary: A good idea, but poorly executed
Review: Mr. Bessette proclaimed that he set out to write a book that would help explain the troubled life and tragically early death of Mario Lanza. This is an excellent idea and (despite protests from an earlier reviewer) his hypothesis that Lanza suffered from a Bipolar Disorder which he self-medicated through alcohol and overeating rings profoundly true. As a mental health professional with a Masters Degree in Psychology, I have seen many examples of persons with such a "dual diagnosis" of both a mental disorder and substance abuse disorder, and clearly Lanza suffered from both: his mood swings appeared to be independent from his drinking, and in fact when he was apparently hypomanic he was less likely to drink. However, after stating his purpose in writing the book in the preface, Bessette does not return to it until the epilogue, when he advances his hypothesis. He apparently felt he was writing something of a mystery novel. His book would have been much more illuminating if he had returned to his stated purpose throughout and had analyzed in more detail each example of Lanza's bizarre behavior as a hypomanic or depressed episode. Instead, we get an interesting preface, an adequate but not particularly detailed (except when it comes to financial transactions, which is likely the area most readers are least interested in detail) or original recounting of Lanza's life, and then the author's briefly sketched impressions in the epilogue. It is worth reading as an account of Lanza's life that is neither overly critical nor overly fawning, but could have been much better.
Rating:
Summary: A good idea, but poorly executed
Review: Mr. Bessette proclaimed that he set out to write a book that would help explain the troubled life and tragically early death of Mario Lanza. This is an excellent idea and (despite protests from an earlier reviewer) his hypothesis that Lanza suffered from a Bipolar Disorder which he self-medicated through alcohol and overeating rings profoundly true. As a mental health professional with a Masters Degree in Psychology, I have seen many examples of persons with such a "dual diagnosis" of both a mental disorder and substance abuse disorder, and clearly Lanza suffered from both: his mood swings appeared to be independent from his drinking, and in fact when he was apparently hypomanic he was less likely to drink. However, after stating his purpose in writing the book in the preface, Bessette does not return to it until the epilogue, when he advances his hypothesis. He apparently felt he was writing something of a mystery novel. His book would have been much more illuminating if he had returned to his stated purpose throughout and had analyzed in more detail each example of Lanza's bizarre behavior as a hypomanic or depressed episode. Instead, we get an interesting preface, an adequate but not particularly detailed (except when it comes to financial transactions, which is likely the area most readers are least interested in detail) or original recounting of Lanza's life, and then the author's briefly sketched impressions in the epilogue. It is worth reading as an account of Lanza's life that is neither overly critical nor overly fawning, but could have been much better.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD CONTENT, BADLY WRITTEN
Review: Roland Bessette's "Mario Lanza" is a good object lesson about the price of fame and an interesting survey course in the career of this gifted but horrifyingly troubled tenor. But attorney Bessette's book proves that as a writer, he makes an excellent lawyer. Bassette's sentence structure, confusing and contradictory information and feeble attempts at humor all mar what is otherwise a well researched work on a man about whom the author obviously cares. Here in Philadelphia, Mario Lanza is something of a diety: its good to see the record set straight. In the end, it seems his failings make his accomplishments all the brighter. If only Mr. Bessette had had what today is that rarest of all things: a good editor.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD CONTENT, BADLY WRITTEN
Review: Roland Bessette's "Mario Lanza" is a good object lesson about the price of fame and an interesting survey course in the career of this gifted but horrifyingly troubled tenor. But attorney Bessette's book proves that as a writer, he makes an excellent lawyer. Bassette's sentence structure, confusing and contradictory information and feeble attempts at humor all mar what is otherwise a well researched work on a man about whom the author obviously cares. Here in Philadelphia, Mario Lanza is something of a diety: its good to see the record set straight. In the end, it seems his failings make his accomplishments all the brighter. If only Mr. Bessette had had what today is that rarest of all things: a good editor.
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