The Man of Property

The Man of Property by John Galsworthy published in 1906 is a rather difficult book. Not difficult to read, but difficult subject. Galsworthy penned a critique of his Victorian contemporaries and how they deal with adultery, domestic disputes, materialism and troubled marriages.

The Forsyte's are an upper-middle class family that is primarily concerned with appearance. In addition, they do not inquire or discuss family difficulties. Soames Forsyte is in a troubled marriage with his wife Irene. His selection of a bride was only partly for love, but mostly for appearance and property. This, of course, causes all kinds of problems as Soames attempts to control his wife. His wife turns to an architect for friendship and love. Property, possessions, and control are dominant themes of the book.

I am still wrapping my head around the story. Apparently, The Man of Property is the first of a series of books. The library only has the first, so I don't know if or when I will read the rest. Worth reading, but also a Victorian soap.

Book Rating: 3 stars

Jimmy Stewart: A Biography

Jimmy Stewart is one of my favorite actors. He is up there with his contemporaries - Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, and others. So I grabbed Jimmy Stewart: A Biography the second I saw it at the library.

Every Hollywood biography I have read lately reveals deeply troubled people who continually made poor choices. The biography on Henry Fonda certainly did this. You read deeply personal backgrounds with all the dirty, sordid details of their life. Of course, their personal lives are very different from their on-screen personas.

I heard the opposite was true about Jimmy Stewart. I was curious to see what his life was really like after reading about him in the Henry Fonda bio. The two were very close friends that shared much of their early careers together. Henry Fonda was known to have been loose and free with women. Well, unfortunately, so was Jimmy Stewart. Many, many Hollywood stars married and divorced multiple times, slept around with their co-stars, etc.

Several chapters in, and I have to wonder how accurately Marc Eliot is in his depiction of Stewart. He appears to assign a lot of emotions and motivations to Stewart that doesn't make sense to me. He implies a strained relationship with his father, yet he respected his father. He talks a lot about Stewart's sexuality while Stewart was faithfully married to one woman - a truly rare feat in Hollywood. The author spends A LOT of time on the sordid details of his life.

In any event, I had to stop reading the book. I decided I don't want to know all of Stewart's past sins. I want to enjoy my favorite movies without knowing Stewart's affairs behind the scenes. I want to escape from reality.

The golden age of Hollywood produced some of the best movies and actors of all time, but the truth behind the magic is very dirty.

Book rating: 2 stars