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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
There's something about this era which really appeals to me, some of my favourite books have covered this kind of time frame of late Music Hall to early cinema. It's almost the dawning of modernity; we now live in a celebrity obsessed world, but this is following people with talent at a time when they really had to graft to make their way, but you can see today the results of everything they pioneered in those days of Variety and Vaudeville. I'd say this one is something akin to an English version of Glen David Gould's Carter Beats the Devil, following one character from childhood to reaching the top of his chosen profession in the entertainment world. It might not quite compare with that work, but it has more success with the character of Charlie Chaplin than Gould's disappointing Sunnyside.
Here, Chaplin is cast as the villain of the piece, portrayed as something of a showbiz-spoiled brat, both given every advantage via a pushy successful elder sibling and via his natural talent, but developing into a nastier character who will stop at nothing to become number one. The hero is Arthur Dandoe, a real-life contemporary of Chaplin and Stan Laurel, but who is now barely remembered even as a footnote. He's the everyman of the stage world, finding his way via a surprising natural gift, discovered whilst working as a porter at Cambridge, and spotted by the theatre impressario Fred Karno. The entire novel seems to have sprung from Chaplin's autobiography, in which Chaplin never mentions Stan Laurel once (despite rooming with him for three years) and mentions Dandoe only to speak in passing of their mutual loathing. The author definitely sides with Dandoe and Laurel in this long-passed quarrel, and does so with a vivid description of the times, the main players in the world, and a decent grasp of the mechanics of the comedy of the era. Note that although Dandoe is the hero, his is not a persona without flaws. He seems almost as underhand as Chaplin, and has a definite cowardly streak to him, which does seem to round him out more fully, even if in real life little was known. You kind of root for him, but also find a fair bit of satisfaction when life kicks him in the teeth.
If there are downsides to this book, it's that it really doesn't develop the main female character and love interest, Tilly Beckett. It feels as though she may have been edited out, because she seems like she should be such a strong, full element within the work, especially when set against the backdrop of the growing Suffragette movement. It was as if the author had more to say about the glass ceiling, the disparity between men and women, and it was all left on the cutting room floor in favour of becoming a mere object of desire. It's certainly never explained why she remains so distinctly devoted to Dandoe throughout the tale, it would have been good to see her stride off into the sunset alone, and at the top of her professional world.
Still, it's a small criticism of an otherwise sparkling and vivid tale of a time which feels long since past, but is probably more relevant than ever.
Here, Chaplin is cast as the villain of the piece, portrayed as something of a showbiz-spoiled brat, both given every advantage via a pushy successful elder sibling and via his natural talent, but developing into a nastier character who will stop at nothing to become number one. The hero is Arthur Dandoe, a real-life contemporary of Chaplin and Stan Laurel, but who is now barely remembered even as a footnote. He's the everyman of the stage world, finding his way via a surprising natural gift, discovered whilst working as a porter at Cambridge, and spotted by the theatre impressario Fred Karno. The entire novel seems to have sprung from Chaplin's autobiography, in which Chaplin never mentions Stan Laurel once (despite rooming with him for three years) and mentions Dandoe only to speak in passing of their mutual loathing. The author definitely sides with Dandoe and Laurel in this long-passed quarrel, and does so with a vivid description of the times, the main players in the world, and a decent grasp of the mechanics of the comedy of the era. Note that although Dandoe is the hero, his is not a persona without flaws. He seems almost as underhand as Chaplin, and has a definite cowardly streak to him, which does seem to round him out more fully, even if in real life little was known. You kind of root for him, but also find a fair bit of satisfaction when life kicks him in the teeth.
If there are downsides to this book, it's that it really doesn't develop the main female character and love interest, Tilly Beckett. It feels as though she may have been edited out, because she seems like she should be such a strong, full element within the work, especially when set against the backdrop of the growing Suffragette movement. It was as if the author had more to say about the glass ceiling, the disparity between men and women, and it was all left on the cutting room floor in favour of becoming a mere object of desire. It's certainly never explained why she remains so distinctly devoted to Dandoe throughout the tale, it would have been good to see her stride off into the sunset alone, and at the top of her professional world.
Still, it's a small criticism of an otherwise sparkling and vivid tale of a time which feels long since past, but is probably more relevant than ever.