Customer Reviews

Lost in the Funhouse

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

What a great comedian and "thespian" A man of many faces moods and contrasts. I never will forget his "Saturday Night Live" debut. Great book I highly recommend.

Better than Zemuda's book. I would recommend this book even if you are not a fan of Kaufman. The story of a very unique man, gain insight as to just what was going on in his mind as he managed to confuse most everyone who saw him.

Zehme is given a seemingly impossible task: get into the mind of Andy Kaufman and interpret his life in a popular biography. The approach here--switching narrative styles and stream of consiousness in a standard celebrity profile format--may alienate some readers but stick with it. Given the dada nature of Kaufman's work and the multifaceted world that was Andy Kaufman Zehme's take on the material is right on the money. While he never quite gets under Kaufman's skin (and who could?) Zehme tells a compelling story of a man who lived life to extremes. Kaufman's genius comes through, as does his ying-yang nature, his childlike qualities, and his savvy assault on show biz cliches.

This book is well worth the ride. Zmuda's book is a fun read, but Lost in the Funhouse comes much closer to answering the question: "who was Andy Kaufman?"

Wow. I read a lot of books, from a lot of different sources. So I don't feel as though anything has gone over my head here. But I can say in ALL HONESTY that I have never been so enraged trying to get through a book. The sad fact of the matter is, is that this is the only Kaufman biography around (Zmuda's now being out of print apparently) and it is a terrible read for the following reason:

Consumers be warned, the author thinks HE is more important than his subject. and to make matters worse he is a pedantic, pretentious, tiresome writer. He may have done lots o' research, but it's all burried by an extremely poorly written stream of bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, I wish I was Faulkner rhetoric.

I won't spend any more time on this review, but it's a shame that most people seem to know Jim Carrey's Andy Kaufman more than Andy Kaufman's. And believe me, they are very different animals. This book's author should realise that a biography is like a documentary. You get out of the way and let the subject speak for itself.

This is a TERRIBLE book. and an embarrassment of a biography.

Strike that, it deserved to win the Pulitzer.

Zehme does an amazing job of describing what Andy Kaufman and his friends & family went through on his long climb to stardom and his deliberate shattering of it all. It's very evenhanded and thorough, and doesn't pass judgment as Kaufman makes his unusual decisions. Sometimes the characters are a little hard to keep straight (Kaufman had several female friends who tend to blur together in the book), but does a good job of keeping a very personal focus on Kaufman.

Kaufman fans are sure to love it, and any fan of performance art (and yes, comedy) should also give it a read.

One note: Zehme writes in an off stream-of-consciousness narrative style, as if mimicking the way Kaufman's inner thoughts flowed. I enjoyed it once I got into it, but give yourself some time to get used to it. It took me 30 pages or so before I was comfortable with his style.

This book bounces around a whole lot, which isn't a bad thing at all. It's actually more entertaining than Bob Zmuda's "Andy Kaufman Revealed!". Zehme's account is based on research and interviews compared to Zmuda's straight personal approach, so there are more perspectives to learn from. Overall, it was a splendid read, one that I'd suggest for anyone facing time at home after oral surgery or a case of mononucleosis perhaps. I am out.

This book bounces around a whole lot, which isn't a bad thing at all. It's actually more entertaining than Bob Zmuda's "Andy Kaufman Revealed!". Zehme's account is based on research and interviews compared to Zmuda's straight personal approach, so there are more perspectives to learn from. Overall, it was a splendid read, one that I'd suggest for anyone facing time at home after oral surgery or a case of mononucleosis perhaps. I am out.

Between, Lost in the Funhouse, and, Andy Kaufman Revealed, this is by far the superior book. It has far more info about Andy. Even though footnotes and sources are nonexistent, when differences in stories occur between the books, Funhouse comes across as far more believable. Unlike Bob Zmuda's, Revealed, Funhouse does not try to dazzle you with the brilliance of Zmuda or the Zmuda /Kaufman team.

Some people found the writing style annoying and at times it is. There were some sentences I read 3 or 4 times yet never did understand. But if I only read writers whose style I liked I'd do very little reading.

This book painted a somewhat unflattering picture of Kaufman and so ultimately did Zmuda's although in the latter it may not have been intentional. Both books led me to believe Andy was not a very nice person. But I'll never know the truth and for those of us who only knew him through TV the question is irrelavent. What is relavent is that he was and remains - interesting.

This book seems like it was written from newspaper clippings.

It is a terrible biography. After I finished I felt so cheated I had to destroy the book. I ripped it to shreds!!! It felt good!

Read Bob Zamuda's book, it is superior.