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The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Jeff Daniels, Ari Fliakos, January LaVoy, Melissa Newman, Clea Newman Soderlund, John Rubinstein, Emily Wachtel
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
The raw, candid, unvarnished memoir of an American icon.
In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman's family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor's life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years.
The result is an extraordinary memoir, culled from thousands of pages of transcripts. The book is insightful, revealing, surprising. Newman's voice is powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, always meeting that high standard of searing honesty. The additional voices—from childhood friends and Navy buddies, from family members and film and theater collaborators such as Tom Cruise, George Roy Hill, Martin Ritt, and John Huston—that run throughout add richness and color and context to the story Newman is telling.
Newman's often traumatic childhood is brilliantly detailed. He talks about his teenage insecurities, his early failures with women, his rise to stardom, his early rivals (Brando and Dean), his first marriage, his drinking, his philanthropy, the death of his son Scott, his strong desire for his daughters to know and understand the truth about their father. Perhaps the most moving material in the book centers around his relationship with Joanne Woodward—their love for each other, his dependence on her, the way she shaped him intellectually, emotionally and sexually.
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is revelatory and introspective, personal and analytical, loving and tender in some places, always complex and profound.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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- Robert Brechin
- 04-02-2024
That the twinkle in Paul’s blue eyes may have been a reick of Nature. Seemed very tightly wound. Hid himself in work.
I liked his ability to face his shortcomings, albeit later in life. Not as joyful a story as I had anticipated,
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- Dona
- 05-02-2023
An Insight into a Famous Star
With trepidation I decided to read/listen to this book because I saw so many of Paul Newman's movies when I was a teenager and I didn't want my idea of him to be tainted by what he was really like. Although it saddened me to hear that he had low self-esteem and felt he didn't really have many friends I enjoyed the book and recommend it to those who liked Paul Newman's acting career or who enjoy learning about so called stars.
What did I get out of this book? I now have a more mature understanding of the man than what I had of him as a teenager. I would not want any of my children or grandchildren to become famous. Too many famous people have the persona that they are happy when in fact have slow self-esteem and doubt their abilities, are almost always in the public eye and so can't even take their family to the movies, dinner, camping etc without being approached by their "adoring" fans.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Joel
- 16-10-2023
Excellent read about a humble man
Really good insight into someone I knew but never really knew. Great read overall.
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