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A review by knod78
Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever
4.0
This was like being the fly on the wall at Bourdain's funeral and/or wake listening to the stories people told about him in a perfectly curated way in a perfect timeline of his life. It helped me see him as a person through the eyes of others. No, he wasn't perfect and no, he wasn't always an angel, but he had his moments of greatness and there are many reasons why he related to us, the regular people. I didn't realize how much his shows started revolutions for so many other shows and networks (although, now, The Travel Channel ONLY plays ghost shows and sometimes museum mysteries). I loved that we saw the vulnerability of him and almost the realness that we could get from people who were with him every day. We see the truth to an extent of the last two tumultuous years of his life before his suicide, and boy, do the storytellers in this book not like Asia Argento at all. Some outright blamed her, but some were realistic, and blamed the situation moreso than her.
My issues were with this amount of stories (like at a funeral or a wake), the stories tend to get repeated and they kind of flow together, getting me confused. This was an advanced copy that I won on Goodreads and it was missing pages like the Appendix with the contributors and I kept forgetting why this person was important. And like with any suicide or depression, everyone now is like, "oh I saw it. I knew." But no one said or did anything. Some tried a little bit, but not much. I've heard that same bullshit before and you know they didn't really do shit. So, it's hard for me to take seriously.
Anyways. If you are fan of Anthony Bourdain, you will absolutely 100% love this book. If you are curious about this man, it's an interesting perspective to read about how he came to be, the middle, the during, the end, the after effects, and everything in between. I learned quite a lot about him tha I never knew. Long live Bourdain!
My issues were with this amount of stories (like at a funeral or a wake), the stories tend to get repeated and they kind of flow together, getting me confused. This was an advanced copy that I won on Goodreads and it was missing pages like the Appendix with the contributors and I kept forgetting why this person was important. And like with any suicide or depression, everyone now is like, "oh I saw it. I knew." But no one said or did anything. Some tried a little bit, but not much. I've heard that same bullshit before and you know they didn't really do shit. So, it's hard for me to take seriously.
Anyways. If you are fan of Anthony Bourdain, you will absolutely 100% love this book. If you are curious about this man, it's an interesting perspective to read about how he came to be, the middle, the during, the end, the after effects, and everything in between. I learned quite a lot about him tha I never knew. Long live Bourdain!