具体描述
Book Description
This is a brilliant, highly spirited memoir of Sidney Sheldon''s early life that provides as compulsively readable and racy a narrative as any of his bestselling novels. Growing up in 1930s America, the young Sidney knew what it was to struggle to get by. Millions were out of work and the Sheldon family was forced to journey around America in search of employment. Grabbing every chance he could, Sidney worked nights as a busboy, a clerk, an usher - anything - but he dreamt of becoming something more. His dream was to become a writer and to break Hollywood. By a stroke of luck, he found work as a reader for David Selznick, a top Hollywood producer, and the dream began to materialise. Sheldon worked through the night writing stories for the movies, and librettos for the musical theatre. Little by little he gained a reputation and soon found himself in demand by the hottest producers and stars in Hollywood. But, this was wartime Hollywood and Sidney had to play his part. He trained as a pilot in the US Army Air Corps and waited for the call to arms which could put a stop to his dreams of stardom. Returning to Hollywood and working with actors like Cary Grant and Shirley Temple; with legendary producers like David Selznick and Dore Schary; and musical stars like Irving Berlin, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly, memories of poverty were finally behind Sheldon. This is his story: the story of a life on both sides of the tracks, of struggles and of success, and of how one man rose against the odds to become the master of his game.
From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling novelist Sheldon's memoir is reminiscent of his colorful novels, a rags-to-riches yarn replete with struggle, an indomitable hero and eventual glamour. It opens with a 17-year-old Sheldon preparing to commit suicide in Chicago in 1934. "[L]onely and trapped," he wanted to attend college but couldn't afford it. Thankfully, his father intervened, and the young man got a new lease on life. He went from being an RKO theater usher to a struggling songwriter, then a top-flight Hollywood screenwriter in a few short years. For the next 30-odd years, Sheldon wrote and directed films, meeting studio honchos and stars like Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. The author's impressive achievements include a WWII flying stint, a screenwriting Oscar for 1947's The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, a Tony for writing the 1959 Broadway hit Redhead, the creation of four classic TV series (including I Dream of Jeannie) and several bestsellers (Bloodline; The Sands of Time; etc.). Yet these accomplishments came with bouts of depression and the death of a child. While the book is long on Sheldon's Hollywood and television days, it skimps on his domestic and publishing lives. Still, that shouldn't stop Sheldon's legions of fans from lapping this up.
From AudioFile
Sidney Sheldon, playwright, Oscar-winning screenwriter, and bestselling novelist, has written a glossy, gossipy, candid show-biz memoir. Mike O'Malley narrates this rags-to-riches saga at a leisurely pace with subdued intimacy, even when he reveals the lows of Sheldon's life, including the struggles he has had being bipolar and experiencing profound personal losses, such as the death of a child. O'Malley lightens up with some hilarious moments, some very personal, as well as some shocking interactions with movie stars like Judy Garland, Groucho Marx, and a surprisingly combative Cary Grant. O'Malley's conversation with 88-year-old Sheldon and Sheldon's afterword don't add any life lessons but neatly tie up a relaxing, titillating entertainment. M.T.B.
Book Dimension
length: (cm)17.8 width:(cm)11.1
作者简介
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用户评价
我必须承认，初读时我对作者选择的这种近乎冷峻的、疏离的叙事口吻感到一丝不适，它缺乏那种传统小说中常见的热情或强烈的代入感。然而，正是这种距离感，成就了它极高的文学价值。它迫使你跳出“被喂养信息”的舒适区，去主动观察、去推断、去感受人物的情感“缺口”。书中对人物心理活动的描绘，不是直接告诉你“他很痛苦”，而是通过一系列精确的行为学观察——比如主角如何整理书架、如何重复做某一个微不足道的家务动作——来不动声色地揭示其内在的崩塌与重建。这种“少即是多”的写作哲学，在当代文学中并不多见，尤其是在探讨如此深刻的身份认同危机时。它没有使用任何煽情的大词汇，但每一个被选择的动词和形容词都带着锐利感，像手术刀一样切割着主题的表皮，直达核心的虚无或坚韧。读完之后，我感觉自己不是在读一个别人的故事，而更像是在参与一场漫长而私密的自我剖析。书中的留白处理得尤其巧妙，很多关键的情感爆发点被有意地留空，让你不得不将自己的人生经验填补进去，完成了作者与读者之间一次罕见的、近乎共创的阅读体验。它需要耐心，但回报是巨大的，因为它教会你如何去“看”而不是仅仅“读”。
评分我个人尤其欣赏作者在处理环境意象和角色精神状态的联结上的深厚功力。全书贯穿始终的“光线”与“阴影”的对立，并非仅仅是文学修辞上的比喻，它似乎是构建整个世界观的物理法则。主角所处的空间，无论是在喧嚣的都市公寓里，还是在那个遥远的、被遗忘的小镇故居中，其光影的分布都直接映射着他内心的清晰度与迷茫感。比如，当他试图面对某个艰难的决定时，场景总是被一种刺眼、不自然的顶光所笼罩，让人感到局促不安；而当他进行自我和解的关键思考时，往往是在一种柔和的、穿过百叶窗的斜射光中完成的。这种对视觉元素的精准控制，赋予了文本一种电影般的质感，读起来时脑海中自然而然地浮现出清晰的画面。而且，这些环境描写并非一成不变的背景板，它们是活的、有反应的实体，它们吸收、反射、甚至扭曲着主角的情绪。这种“情景交融”的写法，让读者在阅读过程中体验到一种更深层次的沉浸感，仿佛我们不仅在阅读角色的内心独白，更是在体验他所呼吸的那个世界的压迫感与庇护感。这种对物理空间与心理空间的深度耦合处理，是这本书中最具独创性的贡献之一。
评分这本书对“时间”这个概念的处理，可以说彻底颠覆了我对传统线性叙事的认知。它不是简单地在过去和现在之间切换，而是创造了一种“多重时间层叠”的体验。你读到某一页时，可能会同时感受到主角在十岁时的恐惧、二十岁时的迷惘以及三十岁时的疲惫，所有这些时间点的感受被压缩在同一个瞬间的文字描述中。这使得故事的厚度骤然增加，因为每一个微小的选择都承载了它过去与未来所有的重量。作者没有急于给出答案或结论，而是将这种时间上的张力作为一种常态呈现给读者。例如，某个关键角色的缺席，并不是以回忆的形式出现，而是以一种“持续的在场感”来影响每一个后续场景，仿佛他只是走出了房间，但从未真正离开。这种对非线性、多维时间感的掌握，让这本书读起来像是一部复杂的交响乐，不同的乐章在同时演奏，但又和谐地指向同一个终极的主题。这要求读者必须时刻保持高度的注意力，去区分哪些情绪是来自哪个时间点，哪些是跨越时空的累积效应。读完之后，我感觉自己对“现在”这个概念都有了全新的理解，它不再是一个孤立的点，而是过去所有重量和未来所有可能性的一个交汇枢纽。
评分这本书的叙事节奏简直是教科书级别的。开篇那段对主角童年生活环境的描摹，细腻得让人仿佛能闻到旧木头发霉的气味和夏日午后尘土飞扬的味道。作者似乎对环境的塑造有着一种近乎偏执的执着，每一个细节都不是为了堆砌辞藻，而是精准地服务于烘托人物内心的某种微妙的、尚未被完全意识到的冲突。随着故事的推进，叙事线索开始像一张精密的网，将过去与现在、内心挣扎与外部事件紧密地编织在一起。最让我惊艳的是作者处理时间跳跃的方式，它不是突兀的闪回，而更像是主角记忆深处某个触点被触发后自然流淌出来的碎片，每一个碎片都带着不同的情绪温度，让你在读的时候需要不断地调整自己的情感焦点。那种在平静的日常对话中突然插入一段极具冲击力的过去场景的手法，处理得相当高明，既保持了故事的张力，又避免了叙事上的拖沓。这本书的结构本身就像一个精心设计的迷宫，你以为自己找到了出口，却发现那只是通往另一个更深层次谜团的入口。对于喜欢那种需要读者主动去拼凑、去解读的复杂叙事结构的人来说，这本书绝对是一场智力与情感的双重盛宴。我花了很长时间才消化完最后几章，因为我需要回过头去重新审视那些看似无关紧要的早期细节，现在回头看，它们才是构建整个宏大主题的基石。
评分这本书的对话部分堪称一绝，简直可以拿去单独研究“言外之意”的艺术。角色之间的交流往往充斥着大量的停顿、未竟之语和微妙的语义反转。你常常会觉得，角色们真正想说的内容，从未真正出现在台词上，而是悬浮在他们每次呼吸、每次眼神交汇的间隙。例如，在那个关于家庭财产分配的场景中，表面上他们讨论的是数字和法律条文，但字里行间全是多年来积累的怨恨、未愈合的创伤以及对彼此价值的隐秘审视。作者非常擅长捕捉人类社交中的那种“表演性”，每个人都在扮演着一个自己期望成为的角色，而这些精心构建的假面，在关键时刻的几次不经意的失言中，便开始寸寸龟裂。我发现自己不得不反复阅读某些对话段落，不是因为我没理解字面意思，而是因为我需要时间去解码隐藏在那些礼貌性措辞下的真正动机和情绪重量。这种对语言工具的精妙运用，让整本书的张力始终保持在一个高压状态，仿佛随时都会有某种东西因为压力过大而爆炸，但最终，爆炸以一种更内敛、更持久的“腐蚀”方式呈现。这种处理方式，使得这本书远远超出了简单的情节驱动，上升到了对现代人际关系复杂性的深刻洞察。
评分果然是个story-teller，其实也没有那么大起大落，但是写得跌宕起伏
评分完全是鸡汤文的感觉
评分完全是鸡汤文的感觉
评分完全是鸡汤文的感觉
评分完全是鸡汤文的感觉
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