A reader’s response to CHAPLIN A LIFE

Posted on October 19th, 2008

Both that enthusiastic Kirkus review and that enthusiastic introduction by Geraldine Chaplin are right, but they miss what turned the better part of my day into a reading binge: the exhilaration of reading your book, the energy that comes off the page. As someone who has invested most of his life in creative endeavours, I may be particularly susceptible to descriptions of the lives and thoughts of artists…I think I can put that aside though, and fairly say that you have a fine knack of turning your passions for subjects such as Coleridge and Chaplin into prose that carries your excitementwith it. It’s a fine achievement.

Henry Allen, Washington Post (Style Section)