Director Mike Nichols (1931-2014) was a private man who didn’t write his memoirs. However, Ash Carter and Sam Kashner, extracting from an enormous pool of letters, interviews, and conversations with Nichols’s friends, family, and colleagues, have created a unique oral biography. Superb narrators Stephen Bel Davies and Suzanne Toren make the listening informative and entertaining. After his comedy work with Elaine May, Nichols is best known for such Broadway triumphs as BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and THE ODD COUPLE and for his renowned films like THE GRADUATE and ANGELS IN AMERICA. Citing the name of the contributor, then reading the remembrance, Davies and Toren present a fascinating look at the man, as told by those who knew him best. A perfect vehicle for audio. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Life isn't everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends
Narrated by Stephen Bel Davies, Suzanne Toren
Ash CarterUnabridged — 11 hours, 36 minutes
Life isn't everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends
Narrated by Stephen Bel Davies, Suzanne Toren
Ash CarterUnabridged — 11 hours, 36 minutes
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Overview
An up close and personal portrait of a legendary filmmaker, theater director, and comedian, drawing on candid conversations with his closest friends in show business and the arts—from Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep to Natalie Portman and Lorne Michaels.
The work of Mike Nichols pervades American cultural consciousness—from The Graduate and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to Angels in America, The Birdcage, Working Girl, and Primary Colors, not to mention his string of hit plays, including Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. If that weren't enough, he was also one half of the timelessly funny duo Nichols & May, as well as a founding member of the original improv troupe. Over a career that spanned half a century, Mike Nichols changed Hollywood, Broadway, and comedy forever.
Most fans, however, know very little of the person behind it all. Since he never wrote his memoirs, and seldom appeared on television, they have very little sense of his searching intellect or his devastating wit. They don't know that Nichols, the great American director, was born Mikail Igor Peschkowsky, in Berlin, and came to this country, speaking no English, to escape the Nazis. They don't know that Nichols was at one time a solitary psychology student, or that a childhood illness caused permanent, life-altering side effects. They don't know that he withdrew into a debilitating depression before he "finally got it right," in his words, by marrying Diane Sawyer.
Here, for the first time, Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols' life, as told by the stars, moguls, playwrights, producers, comics and crewmembers who stayed loyal to Nichols for years. Life Isn't Everything is a mosaic portrait of a brilliant and original director known for his uncommon charm, wit, vitality, and genius for friendship, this volume is also a snapshot of what it meant to be living, loving, and making art in the 20th century.
Editorial Reviews
…with oral—or aural—history, you don't know where the interviews will take you, and you are apt to get surprises, pleasant and (rarely) unpleasant, as the case may be. When the subject is someone in literature or the performing arts, the respondees are likely to be of more than average articulateness, which makes their responses more fun to read, but also more complicated to organize. How do you avoid near repetition or occasional contradiction?…[Carter and Kashner] have skillfully handled things in 14 chapters and a coda. They have drawn on 150 respondents, friendly and mostly jovial, along with a good many quotations from Nichols himself.
Some of the best writing about Hollywood.” —John Simon, The New York Times
"Manna from heaven, its brilliantly orchestrated polyphony bringing him, his work, and his world to vivid life...It is properly celebratory and deliciously filled with his bons mots, but from its opening pages, it shirks none of the complexity of the man, acknowledging the darkness so close to the shining surface… The breadth of the witnesses is remarkable, as are their candor and perceptiveness." —Simon Callow, The New York Review of Books
A People magazine “Book of the Week”
"A fascinating oral history of Nichols’s career. . . . [Kashner and Carter] have intelligently chosen to concentrate on the career rather than the life, and on Nichols’s working methods and artistic techniques. Most of the 150 voices . . . speak eloquently both of the enormous intelligence Nichols brought to almost every project he was involved in and of the deep respect he accorded his collaborators." —Brooke Allen, Wall Street Journal
“Captivating… what stands out in the memories of Nichols’ many colleagues is his ability to guide actors.” —Associated Press
"What, exactly, would one wish for a sizable room filled with 50 years of one's closest friends and collaborators to say behind one's back (if one happened to be arguably/inarguably the most charming, talented, fascinating, entertaining person any of them ever met)? This book." —Wes Anderson
"Funny, incisive, kind, wicked, daring, gripping, sad, human. Kind of like a Mike Nichols movie." —Noah Baumbach
“I love a great Mike Nichols story! And an entire book of them—by turns hilarious, insightful and inspiring—is a real gift.” —Judd Apatow
“For those of you who were denied the exquisite pleasure of knowing Mike Nichols, it’s not too late to make his very special acquaintance. Life Isn’t Everything allows this once in a generation personality to sparkle anew. I was entertained, provoked, reminded of just exactly why a great man was great.” —John Patrick Shanley
“One of the f#@%ing illest books ever.” —Jonah Hill
“The Irish wake of your dreams.” —Broadway Direct
"Legendary director Mike Nichols (1931–2014) refused to write his memoirs, but this scintillating oral history fills the gap splendidly, with wry and heartfelt commentary by "150 of his closest friends," from Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Meryl Streep through Candice Bergen and Christine Baranski, all of whom cherished their professional and personal relationships with a man who seemingly impressed everyone he met as being the smartest and most charming person in the room." —Booklist starred review
“[A] candid, intimate portrayal of a man they loved and admired…. A warmhearted, revelatory composite portrait.”—Kirkus Reviews
"It turns out an oral history is … the best way to tell the fascinating story of Nichols… The quotes are carefully arranged to deliver a narrative… that makes each successive fact more shocking.” —Joel Stein, Town & Country, Best Biographies of the Year
"Deep, in-the-pocket theater devotees . . . are going to feast on this brilliant and terrific oral history of the life and times of the singular Mike Nichols." —Buffalo News
10/01/2019
This is the first portrait of director Mike Nichols (1931–2014) to be published since his death, and it's a marvelous oral biography with recollections from actors, filmmakers, and friends. The breadth of Nichols's career in comedy, theater, and film is staggering, so Carter (senior editor, Esquire) and Kashner (contributing editor, Vanity Fair; When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School) have wisely focused on key periods, such as Nichols's early days with comedian and actor Elaine May, films ranging from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Silkwood to Working Girl and Angels in America, and the stage productions of Barefoot in the Park and Spamalot, among many others. As the thoughts recorded here are clearly from close friends, such as Meryl Streep, Wallace Shawn, Buck Henry, and Tony Walton, there is nary a negative word to be found. Yet many stories of Nichols's personal life, his midcareer depression, and his internal struggles as an artist provide a well-rounded sense of a man who excelled in his field and was truly loved by those around him. VERDICT A wonderful biography of a unique and memorable man, and a worthy addition to all libraries. [See Prepub Alert, 5/5/19.]—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA
2019-08-18
Actors, writers, directors, critics, and producers remember a beloved friend.
Esquire editor Carter and Vanity Fair contributing editor Kashner (When I Was Cool: My Life at the Jack Kerouac School, 2004, etc.) bring together reminiscences about filmmaker, director, and comedian Mike Nichols (1931-2014), gleaned from interview transcripts and conversations with more than 100 of his famous friends, including Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Bob Newhart, Jules Feiffer, Cynthia Nixon, and Tom Hanks. Their remarks and anecdotes, organized to chronicle Nichols' life and career, cohere into a candid, intimate portrayal of a man they loved and admired. "I was always in awe of Mike," Woody Allen admitted, for both his talent and charm. Many echoed Anjelica Huston in remarking on his "incredible capacity for friendship that makes you think you're absolutely unique." Candice Bergen, who found him intimidating at first, praised him for trying to make everyone feel comfortable: "He paid attention to you, which people of success and achievement and intellect rarely do." Nichols long struggled with feeling like an outsider. Born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky, he left Germany with his family in 1939, knowing no English. When he was 5, probably in response to illness, he lost all his hair, an affliction that deeply embarrassed him; as an adult, he wore specially made hair and eyebrow pieces. His career began as an entertainer; friends recall his synergy with Elaine May, who "liberated Mike's unconscious" to inform their "side-splitting and irresistible" comedy improvisations. "God, they're amazing," Robin Williams once remarked. Nichols fell into depression after their split, until he was lured into directing, teaming with Neil Simon for Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. "Mike had a fabulous gift for staging, an instinct for what would work on Broadway," Allen recalled, and a sure eye for choosing scripts and casts: Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, for example, and Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Nichols' attitudes about money, fame, art, and marriage all emerge from the contributors' wide-ranging recollections.
A warmhearted, revelatory composite portrait.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940172012563 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Macmillan Audio |
| Publication date: | 11/12/2019 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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