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65
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
70/100Critics
60/100Scholars
Author:
André Gregory, Todd London
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date:
November 17, 2020
The autobiography-of-sorts of André Gregory, an iconic figure in American theater and the star of My Dinner with André.
What The Reviewers Say
A candid personal memoir detailing the long career and life experience of the brilliantly accomplished Gregory would certainly be welcome, and this book marvelously fills the bill — or would, if its author had not so perversely insisted by its title that it was not his memoir, without offering much of an explanation why not. I suppose we ought to take him at his word. Still, as the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck. … Regardless, Gregory is a masterly storyteller and chronicler. Eschewing the usual stale showbiz anecdotes, his perfectly timed narratives are spiced with wit, self-deprecating humor and shrewd analytical insight. He spares no sentimentality for childhood.
Reading This Is Not My Memoir is like playing Wallace Shawn’s part in My Dinner With André. You are the beguiled, occasionally alarmed audience for boundary-smashing director André Gregory’s free-form monologue about his quest for meaning in life and art.
Shaping This is Not My Memoir, the 86-year-old author's first book, into more than just a motley collection of anecdotes was apparently an uphill battle — which explains Todd London's co-author byline and the book's as-told-to flavor. Fortunately, the result, while not perfect, is well worth the effort. Gregory has led an amazing life in the arts, and his behind-the-scenes accounts of the years-long rehearsal processes leading to productions such as Vanya on 42nd Street will be especially fascinating to theater and film aficionadoes.
Gregory’s memoir, and his life, could be described as the story of the search beyond art turned into art itself. 'Might this,' he asks, 'be part of the task of being human: to keep working on oneself . . . so your life can be more like a work of art itself?'.
