My Remarkable Journey

by Larry King Narrated by Larry King

Overview

For a half-century, the world's most influential figures told their story to Larry King. One of the most famous personalities in television history-whose trademark suspenders and unmistakable voice were known to millions around the world-King reveals nearly all in this intimate and riveting memoir. He delves deeply into his extraordinary personal odyssey, beginning with the loss of his father when Larry was only nine years old, and recounts growing up in Depression-era Brooklyn. Over the years, Larry was fired, incarcerated, and survived not only a heart attack and quintuple bypass surgery, but several marriages. Filled with delightfully evocative personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes observations about some of our most important world figures, the inimitable King tells his colorful story with humor and candor.

Editorial Reviews

Late-night comics prattle about his age, his suspenders, and his numerous marriages, but after 50 years in show business, Larry King remains one of the most popular, resilient figures in mass media. The host of CNN's Larry King Live now hobnobs with presidents and interviews A-list celebrities, but things have not always been so easy for this Brooklyn-born son of immigrants. His family struggled with severe poverty after his father died when Larry was only nine. Later, he lost several jobs, suffered from legal and financial problems, and struggled for decades with a three-pack-a-day smoking addiction. And this list doesn't even include his marital disasters or his quintuple heart bypass! Fortunately, King's memoir covers and redeems this whole, long, remarkable journey.

Publishers Weekly

In this humorous, anecdotal account, King at 75-plus marvels good-naturedly at his staying power for a half-century as a talk-show host for radio and TV. Born in Brooklyn in 1933 to Jewish immigrant parents, young Larry Zeiger was profoundly influenced at age nine by the untimely heart-attack death of his father and by the medium of radio. Rejected by the army for bad eyesight and uninterested in going to college, he got his break filling in for a deejay at a radio station in Miami, where he took the name King in a pinch. His early scrapes are hilarious, especially with women (he married eight times), and he had an uncanny ability to snag famous personalities like Jackie Gleason, Frank Sinatra and Richard Nixon to be interviewed on air. By simply being curious and unassuming, King could make anyone seem fascinating, from a plumber to the famously laconic Robert Mitchum. Despite being fired in 1971 for financial shenanigans, King swept back on the air in Washington, D.C., before being hired to host a show for Ted Turner's fledgling CNN in 1985, where he has been following current affairs for the past 25 years. King, writing with Fussman (After Jackie), has produced a cultural history as much as a personal testimony, touching on world-shaping events over the last 50 years and sharing, with inimitable humor and grace, some quirky POVs from King's family and friends. (May)

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Kirkus Reviews

The legendary broadcaster on his eventful life and times, assisted by Esquire writer at large Fussman (After Jackie: Pride, Prejudice, and Baseball's Forgotten Heroes, 2007, etc.). King (How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere, 2004, etc.) discourses entertainingly on his antic life and storied career, vividly evoking his Brooklyn boyhood and adventures in broadcasting in that familiar, avuncular voice, which is practically audible on the page. He admits to restlessness and a short attention span, evincing a passionate, devil-may-care attitude toward life that precludes deep introspection. In lieu of revealing insights into his character or his talent, King breezily states that he is who he is, and maintains that being true to that immutable "Larryness" is the secret of his immense success. As such, he releases a torrent of well-rehearsed anecdotes, corny jokes, dropped names and baseball trivia. It's an enjoyable ride through an archetypal American life-the Jewish boy made good, a regular neighborhood guy who rises to the top through sheer gumption and force of personality. The most enjoyable sections concern King's boisterous, Depression-era Brooklyn exploits with a cast of well-drawn characters, some of whom add their own perspectives to King's version of events in funny sidebars. The author is unfussily candid about the less savory aspects of his life: the many marriages, his tendency to womanize, his serious health problems, the children he fathered but didn't raise and the financial indiscretions that led to his high-profile arrest for grand larceny in 1971. King's thoughts on the many celebrities and world leaders he has interviewed tend toward the trite and familiar, and hisdefense of his famous lack of preparation for these sit-downs is unconvincing. But it clearly works for him, and his autobiography is vintage King-lightweight but compulsively engaging. The man's a pro. A genial little tome, short on substance but with personality to spare.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175647595
Publisher:	Phoenix Books, Inc.
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Edition description:	Unabridged

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