Irving Berlin: New York Genius (Jewish Lives)

I have previous biographies on Irving Berlin and I'll add this one to my library as well. Berlin rose from the poverty of New York's lower east side to become one of, if not the best, song writer in American history. Author James Kaplan covers his magnificent career in addition to including Berlin's insecurities as well. Berlin would write the songs for one musical and then wonder if there would be any more. Would he be able to write any more memorable songs when so many of those he wrote were failures. One failure was entitled "Smile and Show Your Dimple." However, he was able to keep the melody of that song , change the words, and come up with one of the most memorable songs in American history, namely "Easter Parade."The author includes Berlin's family life as well. His first wife passed away shortly after their marriage and then he had a controversial marriage that his future father-in-law was against. With a family of girls Berlin had one son who passed away shortly after birth.Berlin kept active hoping to add yet one more musical with his last two being "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Call Me Madam." However, with the advent of rock-and-roll the music written by Irving Berlin had to come to an end. Thankfully his songs live on in American history and available to those who appreciate his music.Photos would have been nice in the book.

This is a very readable and enjoyable biography of one of the American Songbook's very finest contributors. You really get a sense of what an extraordinary person Berlin was -- yet how realistic about his art and the business side of his art he was. There can perhaps be no real key to how Berlin, an impoverished, young, Russian-Jewish immigrant rose from The Bowery to become not just the toast of New York but also of America, from the shtetl to Broadway, to Hollywood, to the White House, and everywhere else. James Kaplan catalogues the trials and triumphs, the self-doubt, the dedication, and all the elements that made up Irving Berlin. One important thread in his career was his exhausting tour of his musical review "This Is The Army": he took it to service personnel in all the theaters of war around the world -- North Africa, Europe, India and Indochina, Indonesia and the Pacific. Kaplan's discussion of how Berlin's talent infused the American consciousness with "God Bless America," "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade" is insightful.There was one surprising omission: Kaplan describes how Berlin moved into a beautiful New York town house overlooking the East River for the final four decades of his life (17 Beekman Place at the corner of E. 50th St.) -- around the time he wrote "Call Me, Madam". That musical was a fictional treatment, based on the appointment of Elsa Maxwell as ambassadress to Luxembourg (called "Lichtenbourg" in the play's book). Today that townhouse is the Consulate General of Luxembourg -- a delicious turn of events that Berlin might well have savored.In sum, a terrific biography that does justice to a terrific subject: An immigrant boy who became a jewel in America's crown.

Nothing tricky or pretentious about James Kaplan's biography of this very interesting American cultural icon with the extraordinarily long life. He lays out Berlin's story in a strict chronological order and seems to include a background tale for every major piece of work by the composer. The prose is clear and facts all seem well-researched and credible. Much of the story is drawn from family and friends. Berlin, as prolific as his musical writing was, didn't produce much in the way of journals, so there is less first-person story-telling included.So what was the disappointment in this work? Well, despite the plentiful references to the friendships and professional relationships that Berlin made from his earliest working days; and despite the fact that he created some of the most interesting entertainment works (movies, Broadway shows, etc.) of the 20th Century, this book does not include a SINGLE photograph, illustration or music-related reproduction. And, although there are dozens of references to individual songs written by the composer, there are few or no complete inclusions of lyrics. Predictably, as you read this book and come across works that are familiar enough to get your foot tapping, you aren't provided with the words that can fill in the gaps of your memory. Frustrating for this reader.Overall, a decent telling of the great man's life with an inexplicable missing piece.

James Kaplan’s new addition to The Jewish Lives series is a workman-like biography of Irving Berlin. Kaplan is a good writer who presents the facts of Berlin’s life and let’s the reader interpret them. For instance, I’ve read several bios in the series and I assume the authors are supposed to write about the subject’s Jewish identity (or sometimes lack of identity), which in Irving Berlin’s case seemed to be troublesome. Neither of his wives were Jewish and I couldn’t tell if he’d ever had a Jewish girlfriend. Should Kaplan have written about that? I think it should have been touched upon.The reason I’m rating the book as a 3 star instead of a 4 star, which I would normally have done, was the shocking lack of pictures. Kaplan gives descriptions of pictures but he (or the publisher) didn’t include any in the text. I read the book using a Kindle app on my mini-iPad so I can look things up on Wikipedia. Thanks God, Wikipedia has an “images” section so I could look up pictures of most of the people referred to by Peter Kaplan in his text.I can recommend reading Kaplan’s book, but just know going in about the lack of pictures.

While I enjoy music, I am not a student of it, nor do I particularly enjoy musicals of any sort. But I found this book to be well written, informative and entertaining. It is hard for me to describe it as nostalgia, since I was not particularly familiar with Berlin nor much of the material. Nostalgia, a warm fuzzy feeling about a past I never experienced nor was previously particularly interested in, is illustrative of a very good writer (and an interesting subject). This is an excellent book.

Informative read