Forum - new groucho biography

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Author	Topic:   new groucho biography
Gwen Rosewater unregistered	posted 29 May 2000 05:24 PM            Anyone out there read the new Kanfer Groucho biography? I haven't yet, and wonder if there is anything new in it that a really hard core fan dosn't already know.
Gwen unregistered	posted 23 June 2000 01:44 AM            Well, no one out there seems to have read the book, so I went and read it myself and am here to answer my own question. Is there anything new here? If you've read all the autobiographies and biographies by and about the brothers and their offspring, then no, you won't find much you don't already know. (although Kantfer does fill us in about the particulars of the court battles that continued for years after Groucho's death)But this is the most literary of all the books on the Marxes, and provides an excellent history of their careers, especially of the early years-great one stop shopping for those who don't want to read everything in Kanfer's bibliography. Having said this, I must also say that it is a harsh portrait of dear Groucho, not so sympathetic as Hector Arce's earlier portrait. We all know that he was a wash-out as a parent and a husband, but he was, in my understanding, a loyal and affectionate friend, and in that area at least he was able to transcend his emotional troubles and be the kind of good person he clearly wanted to be.His friend ships meant everything to him, they were his safe harbor from the troubles he had in his family life, and Kanfer dosn't emphasize this enough. But, all in all, I would reccomend it.

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