From Publishers Weekly
Over the course of their 10-year partnership, Lewis and Dean Martin made 16 wildly popular movies (they were the world's number one box office earners from 1950 to 1956), but their real strength was their performances in nightclubs, theaters and on television. Audiences found their mixture of music and ad-libbed, irreverent comedic pandemonium intoxicating. The duo's fascinating kinship—Lewis idolized his partner, while Martin was aloof—has been chronicled in Shawn Levy's King of Comedy and Nick Tosches's Dino, but Lewis wants to give his late partner the credit he feels critics missed by always praising the "the monkey" rather than the straight man. Untangling the complicated union, Lewis doesn't spare himself, admitting that when the team's relationship unraveled (they weren't speaking between scenes on their last film), he became a bully on set and made others the brunt of the anger he couldn't vent at Martin. Lewis is a wonderful raconteur, and his tales capture the excitement of their budding career and the slow, sad erosion of the fun. Whether it's his age (Lewis is 79) or his coauthor (Kaplan co-wrote John McEnroe's You Cannot Be Serious), fans will be surprised and entertained by Lewis's honesty and diminished ego and bitterness. Photos. First serial to Vanity Fair. (On sale Oct. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From AudioFile
Often, "tell-all" biographies reveal that the person on the screen was nothing like the person in real life. DEAN & ME (A LOVE STORY) is not like that. Sure, there are some unvarnished truths that are told, but by and large Martin and Lewis were apparently just as they appeared. It would have been a mistake for reader Gregory Jbara to have tried to emulate Lewis's goofy voice or Martin's smooth lady-killer drawl. However, there is a suggestion of Lewis's spoiled-child voice that is enough to bring a smile. Perhaps it's in the imagination, but there's even an occasional wistful sadness in his voice. M.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
