Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

While I totally understand the zeal with which Mr. Brogan and Mr. Green embrace this book, since both are major contributors to it, I think a more objective critical analysis might be valuable as well. There is a certain amount to like in Mr. Kaufman's "version" of Doris Day's life. It's a quick read, despite the length, and does touch on some interesting pop-culture of the 50's, 60's and 70's, and how Doris Day related to, and was related to by, that culture. But too frequently, the negatives far out weigh the positives: Too much of the book is lifted directly from Day's autobiography, as well as some other celebrity autobios, as opposed to new interviews. We're told many were conducted, but they didn't seem to yield much of anything that hadn't been told before. Many are also gleaned from DVD interviews and liner notes from the 1990's Bear Family boxed sets of Day's Columbia recordings. There is much repeating of old movie fan magazine "interviews," the sort of which the authors seldom left their offices to compose, let alone always meet their subjects at all. They are frequently reported as fact, and often to discredit statements by Day and (frequently) her husband, Marty Melcher, made at other times. There is not as much reportage here as there is supposition in many instances. For instance he hypothesizes that Day may actually have never remembered her young son playing with water balloons, but instead may have "inspired the memory" after playing a similar scene in one of her movies. No proof or reason is offered. He also maintains that Doris' marriage to Marty Melcher was entirely a business relationship from the beginning, and presents as proof their smiling wedding and honeymoon pictures: proof that since the photographs exist, and since the parties are smiling, it was obviously all done for publicity. It's a nice trick, presenting potential proof that might disprove a supposition as the very proof that the supposition is accurate. But it's still a supposition, and not a fact. For all his direct quoting of the Melcher-haters from Day's own autobio, any Melcher-supporters are summarily ignored or dismissed. While he is quick to analyze anything and everything that Doris or her husband Marty Melcher might say (and frequently tries to prove that they seldom were ever telling the truth publicly on almost any subject from benign to important), he gives others a pass with no editorial checking or further interviewing of others to confirm what he then reports as hard facts. An ex-employee maintains that Day turned on him when he claimed that his co-workers had "poisoned her mind against" him, and he had been reduced to "a nothing." His version is portrayed as gospel, with no corroborating or refuting interviews done with the co-workers or anyone else. No examination of the possibly paranoid or narcissistic elements of the employee's statements is undertaken either. (There may have actually been none in the statements, but the phrasing does cry out for analysis, which is solely reserved for Day's and Melcher's statements.) He depends heavily on the views of four particular fans who got to know Doris later in life: two as friends and 2 as employees. While their stories are indeed interesting, and add a welcome and unique slant, the major dependence on them in the last 3rd of the book bespeaks either a lack of access to more major players in Day's life, or a lack of information from major players that could be played up as "controversy." Much space is also devoted to film budgets, grosses and reviews, Very interesting if you love Hollywood, but again, it smacks of filler. Similarly, Mr. Kaufman spends paragraphs describing the contents of the pressbooks of most of Doris' films. While they can be mildly amusing for an old-time Hollywood buff or Day fan, their excessive appearance again indicates a lack of more major information to impart on his titular subject. Sadly, this book also dwells on all the old 1960's carping fodder: Doris' insecurity over her looks and photographic filters, etc. Just when these were being forgotten about and new generations were discovering Doris without any of those old preconceptions, this book seeks to make them a permanent and integral part of her legacy. Unlike the earlier reviewers, I don't think the book is for everybody. It's not simply "dishy" enough to appeal to the Enquirer crowd, nor is it the journalistic examination of this Superstar and the culture that the author intended or that would appeal to the more thoughtful reader, especially if they weren't already a major Day fan.