Rating: 
Summary: Terrific addition to my Marx collection!
Review: Simon Louvish's new book has earned an honored place in my collection of Marx Brothers books and memorabilia. I have been a fan of the Marx Brothers for 25 years and have read nearly every book written by or about them. I thought I knew all there was to know and was expecting this to be nothing but a rehash of things I had read before. Instead I find that Mr. Louvish has carefully researched his subject and shares many new insights based on his research while also debunking (or at least challenging) many of the old Marxian legends. In my opinion, this book is not for the beginner in the world of the Marx Brothers. Mr. Louvish assumes that the reader already has knowledge of their films and of the many myths he works to debunk. If you are a new fan and want to learn more, start with "Groucho and Me" or "Harpo Speaks" and come back to this book later. If you are already well acquainted with the Marx Brothers, I think that you will be very pleased with Mr. Louvish's work.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific addition to my Marx collection!
Review: Simon Louvish's new book has earned an honored place in my collection of Marx Brothers books and memorabilia. I have been a fan of the Marx Brothers for 25 years and have read nearly every book written by or about them. I thought I knew all there was to know and was expecting this to be nothing but a rehash of things I had read before. Instead I find that Mr. Louvish has carefully researched his subject and shares many new insights based on his research while also debunking (or at least challenging) many of the old Marxian legends. In my opinion, this book is not for the beginner in the world of the Marx Brothers. Mr. Louvish assumes that the reader already has knowledge of their films and of the many myths he works to debunk. If you are a new fan and want to learn more, start with "Groucho and Me" or "Harpo Speaks" and come back to this book later. If you are already well acquainted with the Marx Brothers, I think that you will be very pleased with Mr. Louvish's work.
Rating:
Summary: an adrenaline fueled experience!!!
Review: The funniest book about Wall Street. Anyone who is considering going into the financial services industry in investment banking, trading, sales, research or private equity should read this book! It does describe how cut throat the business is and it does provide some entertaining insightful look at characters in the industry.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Done Research
Review: This book gets Three Stars for the research! In contrast to Stefan Kanfer's recent biography of Groucho, this book delves alot deeper into the vaudeville origins of the Brothers and their comedy style. Also Louvish has done some admirable work spotlighting the early days of Groucho's foil, Margaret Dumont. There is a helpful bibliography at the end, as well as a helpful list of the Marxes' film and radio work. (Surprise! Their last film wasn't Love Happy, it was actually Irwin Allen's The Story of Mankind.) I have to agree with some of the comments here about Louvish's writing style--he occasionally becomes a bit overenthusiastic. Like fans of Monty Python or Star Trek, it is hard for him to get through a paragraph without making some reference to the shows. This is overall, pretty forgiveable considering the work he has done.This has been a good year for fans of the Marx Brothers, probably the most new books out at one time since the 1970's. I hope we will continue to see more.
Rating: 
Summary: A Cutely Written Book
Review: This is a cute book but an annyoyingly cute one. Sorry it wasn't written in a more straightforward manner. The Marx Brothers were funny enough without outside "help."
Rating:
Summary: A well researched book, horribly written.
Review: This, along with Stephan Kanfer's book on Groucho and "Harpo Speaks!"is probably all anyone ever needs to read about the Marx Bros. But the author is so concerned with being funny himself that he comes off as a well meaning dumbell. The writing is both archaic in construction (when Louvish quotes from Alexander Woolcott its amazing how much the critic's dated style sounds like his own) and patronizing in tone. Reading this book is like being cornered at a party with an excruciating bore who thinks he's a riot, even if the bore knows alot about something that interests you. It made me yearn for someone who could match the writing with the excellent research.
Rating:
Summary: Probably the last great book on the Marx brothers
Review: Writing a new book about the Marx Brothers is a tough job simply because, unless someone can unearth a treasure chest full of Marx memorabilia, there is little left to be found. True, the Marx Brothers have been well documented by many past efforts, but many of these books rely heavily on folklore, old memories reminiscing, documents generated by the studio, or worse, from the mischievous minds of the Marxes themselves! Simon Louvich does a wonderful and thorough job of providing facts, rather than blindly supporting the legendary stories. For instance; The Marx Brothers always claimed that their father Frenchy was the worst tailor in New York City. The Marx history is riddled with tales of poorly-cut jackets, ill-fitting pants, angry customers and no repeat business. Louvish had the initiative to investigate this story by looking at turn-of-the-century census records of their neighbors to see their occupations. Surprize! Their neighbors were butchers, store owners, and other occupations well above the poverty line, suggesting that Frenchy could not have been so bad a tailor as to live in a decent neighborhood. Louvish's initiative has also led to the unearthing of previously lost scripts of vaudeville routines by checking with the Library of Congress for copies submitted at the beginning of the century for copyright protection. In the book there are many more examples of the very creative detective work performed by Mr Louvish. Most complaints of this book stem from the writing style Louvish chose to use for the book; He uses Marx quotes to pepper the book with a humorous, familiar tone, which seems to bother some readers. I appreciated the style, mainly because biographies can tend to be quite dry, and Marx Brother fans repeatedly use the same quotes in their shared conversations as well. This led me to take Mr Louvish for a full-scale Marx Brothers fan and the chatty tendency confirmed to me that he is a friend, interested in my favorite comedy team and speaking to me as other fans do. A very brave risk on his part, popularly misconstrued, but hit home with me. This book is the closest factual account of the Marxes that we'll probably ever see. It's well worth the journey.
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