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Title: Another Life : A Memoir of Other People by Michael Korda ISBN: 0-385-33507-5 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 09 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.92 (37 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A rousing story of a life in publishing
Comment: Those who love the story of writing and how stories are made will love this book. Those who work closely with authors to help them develop their work will appreciate it even more.
Korda gives us a rare inside look at how publishers publish. He shares with us how he got into the business, how he climbed the S&S ladder, and how he came to run the editorial department of one of the most successful houses in publishing history. He tells us hilarious and eye-opening stories of Tennessee Williams and Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins. We learn just how much work editors put into creating bestsellers. We find out who the authors are and who the writers are. If you're like me, you'll read these stories as you would a bowl of candy. You'll eat and eat until you're scratching at the bottom of the bowl for more.
I don't recommend this book without reservation, however. Michael Korda, the famous editor, could have used even a junior editor to help him dig out his story. At times, the book thuds along, caught up in Korda's telling of the history of publishing in the United States. His asides into the money side of the business -- how publishing developed from a cottage industry into a mere cog in larger multinational entertainment companies -- is numbing. Still, I soaked in these parts of his story to get to the good parts.
Korda is not a great writer, though he worked with many, and has a wonderful story to tell. Skip past the dull moments if you like, but most definitely read this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: What Happened, Mike?
Comment: Editors know what grabs people. That's why I'm perplexed that Michael Korda's new tell-all book about his life at Simon & Schuster didn't spend more time on its strong points--the dishy-dish on famous authors and stars. Rather, Korda opted for long, boring analysis on the publishing industry, it's quarter-century of peaks and valleys and ran me through a grammatical blender of too-heady commentary. I enjoyed "Another Life" because of its great, behind-the-scenes snapshots of Jackie Susann, Joan Crawford, Tennessee Williams, Nixon, a Mafia don and others. But Korda destroyed the tempo by reverting back to way-to-long diatribes of inter-office politics and industry lore. My biggest problem was Korda's horrible, infinity-like sentences--don't they teach journalists that it's better to use two short sentences rather than one long one. Korda and his editor drowned us with mega-sentences that were so long--I had to keep going back to re-read what was said just to make sure I understood it. One other thing really got me. An error. Can't believe it got by Korda, who states he's quite the military buff. Where was your editor and fact-checker, Mike? He refers to a "Missouri-class battleship" when writing about a pile of papers on a desk. Mike, you mean "Iowa-class." The USS Missouri, Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin are all "Iowa-class" battleships. How could you dear boy? Finally, there's no chronology here. Korda jumps through the book with some inattention to detail. He never sets a year on many of the happenings so you're never really sure whether he's still talking about the 1960s, 1970s or 80s. At other times he offers cute, heady Mensa-like postures that are not explained. We're all not Euro-heads, Mike. I enjoyed the book but it got rough toward the end, languishing with too much business and not enough gusto. Skipped most of the last 25 pages by the way. This book was tops with character portraits and gossip. Why didn't Korda stay with that positive side?
Rating: 3
Summary: Where are the human beings??
Comment: This book is a fascinating read and hard to put down. The reader gets a whirlwind tour through the editing side of publishing and a multitude of witty and entertaining brief caricatures of people famous in the world of books. But the only person, of the multitude vignetted in the book, who comes through even vaguely like a real human being, is Dick Snyder, one of Korda's bosses. Korda goes through paternity, divorce and prostate cancer with nary a whisper of an emotion. At the end one is left wondering what was the purpose of the whole exercise.
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Title: Charmed Lives: A Family Romance by Michael Korda ISBN: 0060085568 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Country Matters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse by Michael Korda, Success Research Cor ISBN: 0060957484 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Book Business: Publishing: Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein ISBN: 0393049841 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life by Michael Korda ISBN: 0066212529 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 21 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Business of Books: How the International Conglomerates Took Over Publishing and Changed the Way We Read by Andre Schiffrin ISBN: 1859847633 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: August, 2000 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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