How do you contain such a person in the pages of a book? It may not be possible; in any event, Kate Andersen Brower hasn’t done it. The effort is there: Scrupulously researched, Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit and Glamour of an Icon weighs in at nearly 500 pages.

When I sat down with Kate Andersen Brower’s Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon, I expected to read a biography — a book that would offer both argument and documentation. But I was hard pressed to find any organizing principle beyond chronology and bursts of indiscriminate admiration, and what passed for endnotes dismayed me. They did not reference specific pages. Each chapter was noted with a jumble of interviewees and books, but no precise attribution.

None of this is exactly new: it has long been mythologised. Authorised by Taylor’s family, Andersen Brower has been granted access to letters and intimate records, but these yield incidental gossip rather than significant revelations. Nor is anything of critical interest said about the relevant movies, several of which are simply ignored. Brower’s showbiz prose style – too many clichés, too many vacuous quotes – doesn’t help either.

Parts of Taylor’s life, in spite of quotes from her letters and diaries, remain mysterious.

[Elizabeth Taylor] isn’t much interested in Hollywood, or acting. There are no descriptions of performances. Taylor’s film career is hardly mentioned. Instead, what matters is Taylor the celebrity.

Comprehensive and intimate.

This well-researched biography gets as close to telling Taylor’s story in her own words as readers will ever get.

Appreciative.

Glowing portrait.