Reviews

Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever

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viprholmes's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

3.5

The man is an interesting subject- the oral biography format is challenging.

bizlet's review against another edition

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I don't feel comfortable since Bourdain wasn't able to consent to these stories being shared about him. The format was also very difficult to listen to and I knew I wouldn't retain anything I had read by the end and I wasn't connecting to it emotionally.

I imagine this was a way to grieve for everyone involved and I'm happy for that. I'm uncomfortable that they are also profiting from the book.

valdezjs1's review against another edition

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3.0

This book is an oral history of Tony’s life, spoken by those that knew him. It was interesting to read about the arch of his life from chef to world traveler to journalist. You can really get a feel for what a highly intelligent and gifted person he was. The sections of the book that speak to the last year of his life were the hardest for me to read. It was very sad to see how he changed so quickly. While the book gives you a good sense of who Tony was the stories are very repetitive. It was also a struggle to read and stay engaged. I think this would make a better audio book.

evergreen_rd's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

melanna's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

2.0

I have a vague idea who this guy is. I’ve never read his books or watched his shows. I’ve read a lot of biographies and memoirs of people I don’t know and often find them fascinating. This one I think was more written for the fans. I didn’t really care. And the style of writing, which is all the people who knew him sharing a couple sentences at a time to build a narrative brought in way too many characters. I hated that. The audio at least made it easier to track since they read their own words.
I think I’ll read his actual book and I’ll like him more but this didn’t do it for me.