From Publishers Weekly
rolific biographer Marc Shapiro's Susan Sarandon: Actress-Activist offers fans of the Oscar-winning actress the first full-length biography of the star of Thelma & Louise, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dead Man Walking, The Hunger, Bull Durham and others. Charting both her film work and her liberal political activism with husband Tim Robbins, the author of J.K. Rowling: The Wizard Behind Harry Potter gets the dates and names right in this workmanlike effort, but there's very little insight from such a distance (the bibliography lists one interview for the book and that's with ACLU executive director Ira Glasser). The filmography and TV/documentary credits at the end are sketchy (i.e., film title, year and Sarandon's character's name).
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
From the looks of Shapiro's body of work, he plies his trade writing mostly unauthorized biographies of "celebrities of the moment," such as Carlos Santana, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, J.K. Rowling, and Freddie Prinze Jr. Though this is the first biography of Susan Sarandon, it has a mechanical quality, as if it were produced by a machine designed to cash in on a star's current success. Shapiro neatly charts Sarandon's growth from a strict Catholic childhood to accidental actress to activist, but the writing lacks eloquence, and little is here that can't be found in Current Biography and other secondary sources. In fact, the bibliography shows that Shapiro interviewed only one person, Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union. The rest of the quotes and stories come from previously published books and articles. Unless your patrons are clamoring for a biography of Sarandon, wait until she authorizes one or writes her own book. Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
