Beautiful book this was not. (Heath Ledger - His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death - John McShane)

Member Name: bamamo

Product:	Heath Ledger - His Beautiful Life and Mysterious Death - John McShane
Date:	29/12/08 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None I can see.

Disadvantages: Spoilers, nothing but rehashed quotes, jumbled order, repeats facts...I could go on

I don't usually like to read celebrity biographies at all. I've been in a reading rut lately though, and when in the library spotted a bio of the late Heath Ledger, I figured it would be something easy that would maybe kick me off reading again. I was interested in the whole circumstances surrounding Ledger's death, and wondered what slant this would tell it in.

I had enjoyed pretty much everything I saw him in, and he was one of my favourite actors, so I was a little annoyed at work in the days following his death to receive news stories from the trashier of our nation's press with kiss-and-tells and stories of what a huge junkie he was. So maybe he was, but so is half of Hollywood most likely, and I still thought it was in terrible taste, particularly as the coroner's report didn't even conclude he died from an overdose of illegal drugs at all. But yes, I know, that's the kind of thing Sun reporters dream about and a reason I have to hate my job occasionally.

I didn't have high hopes for this book really, as I don't like the genre. For me, celebrity biographies just don't seem interesting. Apart from anything else - everything they do is plastered across the papers anyway, so why do we need a book (or in some cases two or three or four) to tell us even more? The interesting bios, I think, are on people who have explored somewhere, or achieved something major, not got their boobs inflated or acted in a movie. The fact that Heath is dead at least means it this was to have a beginning, middle and an end.

Anyway, onto the book. It begins by briefly outlining where Heath is from, and skips past his childhood in a couple of paragraphs to the beginning of his acting career. Here's where I started to get irritated. The author somehow thinks it's okay to inform us that Heath was in such a film early in his career, then describe, albeit concisely, the entire plot, spoilers and all. Wouldn't go down too well on Dooyoo, huh?!

I would begin to think "oh, I never saw that, might be worth a watch" and then BAM, there's no need because I now know exactly what happens. Not cool.

The whole book is littered with quotes. Which should be nice, it gives the reader a feel for Heath's "real voice" rather than dry facts from the author. However, the sheer amount of them and the way they are used makes the book seem a little cheap and sloppily put together. Especially when I noticed the exact same two sentences of quotes twice on the same page!! Besides quotes from Heath himself, there are also several quoted reviews to tell us how the movie they have just spoiled was received. A paragraph or even sentence on the gist of that would have sufficed. One review if they must..but up to two pages of regurgitated quotes ripped straight from the paper? No thanks.

My third complaint is that the author doesn't seem to have structured the book at all before writing. I mean, it should be easy enough if essentially all you are doing is spoiling the plots of films and peppering with quotes. That and the fact that it's somebody's life - should be pretty easy to jot down a timeline and get things in order. But the author (John McShane) had an annoying habit of starting to write about one thing then saying "but that was to be years ahead" or "but I'm getting ahead of myself", and then go back to something else. So when the aforementioned event actually occurs, we have to listen to it rehashed over again. We'll hear all about his life with Michelle Williams and baby Matilda, then the next chapter she isn't even born yet.

So far I've been really negative about the book, and as you can tell it was as middle-of-the-road as I expected it to be. Despite this, the chapters were of a manageable length and it was a really easy read. Note that easy does not necessarily mean enjoyable. Somehow I made it to the end and found the explanation of his death...exactly like everything that has already been in the papers, and really pretty brief. This is clearly a book written with a great respect to Heath and his family, you can gather that from the title, and as such you can expect that it is maybe biased in regard to certain aspects of his life. It did touch on the controversies regarding his alleged drug use and footage of that which has emerged care of The News of the World, but immediately launched back into quotes from his family about what a stand-up guy he was.

It would seem that his "mysterious death" of the title would remain a mystery, as besides the official, as-published-in-every-newspaper coroner's report, and a brief timetable of what has already been revealed, there is nothing new. Cue more quotes, some of which we've already read. Yawn.

The book has three sections of colour photographs between the story, mostly of Heath with past girlfriends, notably Heather Graham and Lisa Zane. There are also stills from movies, a few pics of him with Michelle Williams and daughter, and some of his family and friends dancing on the beach at his wake. There is even a shot of his body being removed from the New York apartment where it was found. Honestly, I would expect a little more when reading a biography. All of these pictures could be found easily online, or have been in the press following his death. There are no pics of baby Heath, or gawky awkward teenage snaps, nothing overly interesting honestly.

If sloppily-thrown-together celeb bios are your bag, you can pick this up at Amazon.co.uk for £4.79.

Summary: A quickly thrown out, just plain bad biography, give it a miss.