Me and Orson Welles
-
- £4.99
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
SPECIAL TIE-IN EDITION INCLUDING EXCLUSIVE IMAGES FROM THE FILM.
Richard is a 17-year-old kid from New Jersey with the gift of the gab and an eye for the ladies. He's bored with school and dreams of making it big in the dazzling world of 1930s Manhattan.
This is the story of one week in Richard's life, when he miraculously gets a part in a history-making production of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Mercury theatre, New York. It's the week falls in love, and falls out of love again; it's the week he changes his middle name - twice. It's also the week he meets the colossally talented, fearsomely charming, soon-to-be-superstar Orson Welles. After this week, Richard's life will never be the same again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"This is the story of one week in my life. I was seventeen. It was the week I slept in Orson Welles's pajamas. It was the week I fell in love. It was the week I fell out of love." Thus does the precocious protagonist of Kaplow's first adult novel summarize his adventures as a bit-part player in the landmark 1937 Mercury Theater production of Julius Caesar that helped catapult the 22-year-old Welles to the top of the entertainment world. Kaplow wastes no time setting up his unlikely scenario; after an impromptu sidewalk audition, Richard Samuels, a New Jersey high school student, lands the part of Lucius, a minor character. The conceit forms a nice counterpoint to the coming-of-age material, as Kaplow alternates scenes about Samuels's high school and home life with a series of rehearsal passages that bring the brilliant but mercurial Welles to life. Samuels falls in love more than once: first with fellow high school actress Caroline, then with a lovely, flighty production assistant named Sonja who is also involved with Welles, and finally with Gretta, an aspiring writer. The climax features a colorful showdown between Samuels and Welles after the boy confronts the married Welles about his affair with Sonja. Kaplow doesn't quite capture the dark side of the enigmatic Welles, but his bright, enthusiastic writing about Samuels's introduction to the world of high-stakes theater makes this an entertaining offering.
