Life Itself: A Memoir

I have read Ebert since '91. He was always insightful on his reviews, and is in this book. I appreciated his honesty of his own mistakes in life. I liked him from afar but am glad I didn't know him up close. Quite a man, and a great writer. Worth the read.

Somewhat disappointing. About 50% was of no interest to me, notwithstanding it included numerous details of Mr. Ebert's life. The other 50 % was interesting to the extent that it dealt with his "Siskel and Ebert" program and his remembrance of Mt. Siskel who was an interesting person and who died in 1999 in addition to his recollection of various movies and entertainers and movie celebrities.

I'm almost finished reading "Life Itself..." So far what Mr. Ebert wrote about is slightly interesting....not sure what I was expecting....maybe lots of inside information about the films he reviewed, etc. Maybe toward the end of the book he reveals more.....hope so. My recommendation: A slow read, that's only slightly interesting.

Roger Ebert has given us great insight into his history, why he became a film critic and his current condition. I commend him for his extraordinary frankness and honesty about his family, his friends, his life and his view of films. An excellent read as all his books are.

After reading this elegant, beautifully written, captivating life story, it's sad to look at the comments section and see that some people can no longer recognize talent. They just don't get it. Three, two, and one star reviews for writing filled with as much insight and clarity as you're going to find in any biography? Have we arrived at a point where someone who is an obvious expert at vibrant storytelling can't be recognized? One reviewer even complains about Ebert's chapters on his Urbana, Illinois childhood and school years. These sections may contain some of the most vivid writing and memorable passages in any book in years. This is what talent looks like. Too bad for those unable to see it.

I wanted to read about a "Central Illinois Boy Makes Big", then I didn't like him by the end. So is the adventure of picking up a book, isn't it? If you're a Chicago-insider, Liberal, you will like this book. If you want to hear more about Roger's health struggles, read this book. His deteriorating health issues are so sad and bravely fought, but there is an underlying theme of blame, although denied, for those in his history betraying his health because of the environment in which he lived most of his life. The missed opportunity is that I didn't get more insight into his method of movie review and the appreciation for his being elevated to such a pivotal position in the movie industry somewhat by chance. By that point in his life I believe he thought he was more powerful than he actually was and he had forgotten his humble beginnings, choosing to reject and dismiss them than remembering what the folks in central Illinois really value.

Dear Roger,

Please please please write a novel next. Your prose is stunning and often made me think of the sparse work of William Maxwell. I will put your memoir next to "So Long, See You Tomorrow!" on my to reread book shelf.

Thank you,
Martha L. Burns

I anticipated receiving the book but was very disappointed when I began reading it. I found it to be tedious and boring. Rather than reading the chapters in succession, I selected only a few and skipped most of the book.

Roger Ebert had too many stories of people I never heard of, and not enough detail to make me care. The stories of people I knew about were interesting, like Silkel, John Wayne, and Studs Turkel. I miss Roger Ebert.

I enjoy reading Roger Ebert's reviews and other material and looked forward to reading his memoirs. Although this book is well-written for the most part, it is mainly a compilation of Ebert's previously-written essays and blog entries. These essays were fine as stand-alone pieces, but they made for a repetitive, meandering book with a lack of narrative cohesion. The content was interesting, but I would have just read Ebert's blog and skipped the book had I known how much recycled material was included.

This autobiography is not a great book. Still, it is someone's life and there is always something to learn from every man's rambling, but this book is self-indulgent and suffers from a lack of a strong editor. The reader can tell that Ebert just wrote whatever he wanted and they published it. I just about quit the book a third of the way through--chapter after chapter about Urbana-Champaign in the 1950s from the point of view of a kid on a bike doing nothing particularly interesting. The first section is painful. It gets better, but still, don't pick this up until you have read Chernow and Massie and Manchester and so many others.

But there were a few nuggets worth sharing:

1. Siskel and Ebert both interviewed Dolly Parton (separately) at the opening junket for 9-to-5, held in Dallas. They both felt a powerful almost spiritual, healing or comforting, spirit in her presence that Ebert never had felt before or afterwards. Dolly Parton had greatly impacted both of them in a short period of time--she must be a transcendent person, full of grace.

2. Ebert loved London, going 2 or 3 times each year. He wrote a book about it: A Perfect London Walk. He liked to go to the same places each time, following a routine and becoming familiar with the same places as they changed over the years. It was like he was touching totems and becoming familiar with the foreign over the decades. He took great joy in seeing the same biker guy come in every afternoon to a certain pub and take the same table. They never spoke, but Ebert knew he would be there and watched for him. Odd. But beautiful in a way. It seems, at least before his marriage to Chaz, he was happiest in London.

3. "One of the most touching descriptions of Judaism I have ever heard", said Ebert referring to a discussion with Siskel about Judaism, which Siskel took very seriously. Siskel said: "It wasn't necessary to think too much about an afterlife, what what important was this life, how we live it, what we contribute, our families, and the memories we leave. The importance of Judaism isn't simply theological or, in the minds of some Jews, necessarily theologically at all, it is that we have stayed together and respected these things for thousands of years and so it is important that we continue."

4. He broke free, totally away from his mother, as an adult after she became an alcoholic. Completely cut her out of his life. She was a good woman and a good mother when Ebert was growing up, but become an alcoholic and became unbearable. Ebert was also an alcoholic for a few decades so he wasn't too hard on her, but to be happy, as a practical matter had to cut her out of his life. Sad. He cured his alcoholism through AA. He swore by it and attended meetings for the rest of his healthy life, wherever he was traveling he found meetings.

5. When Ebert was diagnosed with cancer, all his doctors recommended surgery. He got on the internet and determined that a new unproven neutron radiation treatment was the way to go. He debated his doctors for months until they agreed to give it a try. He is humble enough in this bio to admit that this was a huge mistake and directly led to the loss of his jaw (disfigurement) and would lead to an earlier than necessary death. He believes that if he had listened to his doctors and had the surgery, he would not have lost the jaw completely. He strongly cautions against following his example and trying to be an internet expert on your disease--trust your doctors, they really know more than you do and have your best interests at heart.

6. After he lost the ability to eat, being nourished completely by tube, he missed food, at first. But gradually he stopped missing food because he started remembering it. He could close his eyes and in his mind eat a burger from Stake and Shake, his favorite place from his childhood. He could remember with beautiful detail a soup in a cafe in the south of France, or the chips in a London pub. He was able to enjoy food, maybe more than ever before in his life, even though he could not eat it. I found this touching and insightful into how beautiful our memory can be.

7. Ebert was not a religious man, rejecting the Catholicism of his childhood (even after attending a Catholic school). ("They [the Catholic Church] have been fighting a holding action for a thousand years.") He considered himself a Humanist. He didn't think the existence of God was likely, but didn't call himself an atheist or agnostic because he wanted to be humble in the face of "the mystery we are forced to confess". "Absolutists frighten me", he said of hard core atheists. Maybe his commitment to AA moderated his rejection of God. But he rejected the idea a God that talked to man, even if men believed they heard his voice. He held an odd mix of doubt and reverence for how ignorant we are. He hated the prosperity gospel and sects that proselyte aggressively--"A worthy church must grow through attraction, not promotion".

8. In spite of religious estrangement, once in the hospital he was laying dead on the table and the doctors had given up on him, stopping their treatments. Ebert says he was not ready to die yet and was aware that he wanted to live. His wife Chaz was in the room and she claimed she could literally feel his heartbeat inside of her, that she could feel him not ready to die and wanting to live. Chaz told the doctors to try once more, that she was certain that he would live and that he was ready to be revived. They did and Ebert lived. He did not attribute this experience to a God with a beard and holes in his hands, but recognized it as an unexplained and merciful miracle.

9. Egbert loved and lived by a Brenden Beane [sp?] quote: "I respect kindness in human beings, first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law. I have total irreverence with anything connected to society, except that which makes the road safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and the old men and old women warmer in the winter, and happier in the summer."

10. "Kindness sums up all my political beliefs. No need to spell them out."

Well, these comments have some pretty good stuff in them, but don't be fooled. The book wasn't that good--this is like a trailer that contains all the good parts of the movie. Ebert was a nice guy, a genuinely good guy, but this isn't a great autobiography.

This memoir opens as though someone had created a set, arranged the lights, positioned actors, and yelled "Action!" Ebert is three years old, sensing the motions of parents, aunts, uncles and extended family, reacting to various stimuli, seemingly aware, even at this age, the cameras are rolling.

The book has a lot in common with the Gunther Grass novel The Tin Drum, as Ebert recalls his early years, then in vivid detail, matinee afternoons with his parents watching the Marx Brothers hit, A Day At The Races, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and one of the first 3D films, Bwana Devil. Early screen heroes were Whip Wilson and Lash LaRue, characters who carried guns but didn't need them because they also carried whips and could slash a pistol from your grip before you could aim it. He remembers the ubiquitous aroma of popcorn, the high movie house ceilings, and girls with rolls of Necco wafers.

Then came college, 1963, the year Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski led the University of Illinois to the Rose Bowl. "I became friendly with a voluptuous woman under a grey woolen blanket. In the middle of the night, rocking through the midlands, we made free with each other." He had fun, but also vigorous preparation, working for the Daily Illini newspaper with its Associated Press affiliation, spending hours setting hot lead Linotype, and reading the voluminous novels of Thomas Wolfe.

One of Ebert's transcendent skills has always been the interview, and the book is full of them - John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Woody Allen and the enigmatic Igmar Bergman are represented, but the best one takes place with Robert Mitchum. You can hear Mitchum speaking the interview lines, and for a brief time, you are in one of his movies. "I knew him," Mitchum says of Humphrey Bogart. "He and I were good friends. He once said to me: `the thing that makes you and I different from those other guys is, we're funny.'"

Over a lifetime of watching movies, Ebert has reached some conclusions about them. "Movies aren't about what happens to the characters. They're about the example [the characters] set. Casablanca is about people who do the right thing. The Third Man is about people who do the right thing and can't speak to each other as a result. You may need awhile to think about this, but the deep secret of The Silence Of The Lambs is that Hannibal Lecter is a Good Person."

He has mixed feelings about the contemporary movie scene as this passage on page 160 reveals: "When you go to the movies every day, sometimes it seems as if the movies are more mediocre than ever, more craven, more cowardly, more determined to pander to our lowest tastes instead of educating them." He adores black and white films, and offers movie goers this test: "take a picture of your grandparents, probably taken in black and white, and put it next to a picture of your parents probably taken in color. The picture of your grandparents will probably seem timeless, the one of your parents will probably seem goofy."

He ends the book as a man larger than the motion picture industry he critiqued, emerging as someone very much at home with his contribution to film and even more so, to his family. Easily the best book I've read this year.

Cut. Print it.

I know there's this showy public mourning that goes on when someone famous dies, but when Ebert passed, I felt a real sense of loss that I'd never be able to read something new from him again. Before he was gone, though, he wrote an autobiography: Life Itself. It was made into a documentary, which I watched but didn't think was particularly special. But I bought the book, hoping it would be better. And for me, it was. Not only was it better, it was wonderful.

Life Itself is structured loosely chronologically, beginning with Ebert's family history and going through to when he was near the end of his life and knew it. The first few chapters, which detail how his ancestors came to the United States and his parents' upbringings as well as his own early years, are probably the weakest. While most of us are interested in these details for ourselves and sometimes our loved ones, reading about someone else's is not exactly captivating stuff. Once Ebert gets to his own life, though, the book really finds its footing and takes off. He recounts his life with insight but largely without excess sentimentality: his father's early death and his mother's alcoholism, his experiences on the college paper at the University of Illinois, his journalism career, his international travel, his own alcoholism, the joy he found with his wife Chaz, his relationship with Gene Siskel, his meetings with prominent actors and directors, and his own insistence on an aggressive course of cancer treatment that likely lost him his jaw and ability to speak. He clearly knew that this book was his last chance to put his own story out there and it's obvious that he didn't want to squander the opportunity. Given that he spent his final years in a painful and uncomfortable situation, it's remarkable how little bitterness his writing contains. Instead, he uses his last testament to to reflect on a full life, with all the moments of joy and sorrow it contained.

If you're thinking about reading this book, you're probably already interested in Roger Ebert and his writing. But if you haven't, I recommend going to his blog (still online) and browsing around a little. If you like what you find and enjoy autobiography/memoir style books, this will likely be a win for you. If that's not something that intrigues you, you may appreciate the writing but find it a largely pointless exercise to read. For me, I found it moving and a likely future re-read, but I could completely understand if it's not for everyone.

We tell stories for different reasons. If you're about to read Ebert's LIFE ITSELF, it might be helpful to consider why he writes these memoirs as he does.

He's not really telling his stories to inform us or to broaden our knowledge about large and small eating places that he has loved around the world, or the great pals he has accumulated in a very full life. He's not primarily interested in entertaining us or holding our attention, though I think he expects that will happen--and it probably will.

I believe Ebert is telling these stories the way people do in the later years of our lives--as a precious kind of taking stock for ourselves, a summing up (the title of Somerset Maugham's memoirs), a saying of the rosary of our days. Every bead is cherished. The litany of names of pals and what they drank and where they sat and who they out-smarted and how much they loved us and we them--this review and re-telling is as much a part of the so-called third stage of life as learning to talk is of the first stage.

If you know this in advance, then you can sit back and let Roger tell you all the details, and smile and nod in appreciation of the man telling the stories. I skipped a number of chapters--each too long for too little of what I was interested in. Other chapters I read slowly, gleaning every grain I could.

I don't think I could have NOT read this book. Roger Ebert's is the major voice on a subject I've been passionate about for more than seventy years. I advise potential readers of the book to sit back, enjoy, be patient, skip when you feel like it, and realize how lucky we are to have the book and the man.

Perception are a funny entity. My perception of Roger Ebert in watching him evolve from Public television was of a bland, curmudgeonly, Simon Cowell (two decades too soon).

This autobiography did some heavy lifting in dispelling this idea. I came to see Ebert in very human terms, and as a thoughtful, trailblazing and ultimately courageous visionary.

His was a phenomenal career. His groundbreaking work as a movie critic, and his bravery in trailblazing social mores stood him apart from most other celebrities. His intelligence, open-mindedness, and clear thinking made him a popular fixture on the small screen.

He battled alcoholism early in life, and an increasingly debilitating illness later.

In this book, he begins telling chapters in his early life, and graduates to talking about the important people in his life. Most chapters are short. The chapter on Gene Siskel didn't appear until late in the book, and it did yield some insight into the man, but it was not enough. These two teamed to define each other.

I can't criticize this book, there were many insights. And he wrote it with one foot in the grave. Yet I found it eerily lacking. Lacking in the drama of his ascension to stardom, lacking in the story of his romance, and the trappings of stardom.

All in all, I am glad I read it. He was a thoroughly decent man, and lived a fortunate life.z

Everyone is familiar with Roger Ebert, right? His characteristic "thumbs-up" rating for movies he enjoyed, his battle with cancer that destroyed his face and took his voice forever, his antagonistic but often funny interactions with Gene Siskel? I grew up watching him. I spent hours in theaters watching the movies he recommended and he was probably one of the main reasons I entered college as a film major. But what I didn't know and really didn't begin to know, was the man behind the famous rating system. I didn't really get to know him until his battle with cancer and I didn't read this book until he passed away this past April. What a life.

Life Itself is a treat for anyone who enjoys small town life and nostalgia in general. Ebert's small town of Urbana, Illinois provided a safe, comforting backdrop for his childhood. His trips to the local movie theater are written about with the care and gentle handling of a man in love with his childhood. He was always a wonderful writer, but the sense of place he conveys in this memoir will bring tears to your eyes for what once was. I loved these glimpses into Ebert's life. His funny perspective, his awkwardness and his ability to break it all down into pleasant digestible bits.

There are some things I learned that I was not aware of before reading his book. I had no idea that he was a recovering alcoholic. The section on him joining Alcoholics Anonymous was told with such honestly, that I wanted to just reach through the pages and offer him a gentle, guiding hand. I also didn't know that Gene Siskel, the critic that was forever (in my mind) arguing with Ebert over the movies they reviewed, was actually a very close friend and that their success on TV came quite accidentally. Additionally, I had no idea that Ebert was such a reader! Lots of book love in this one.

What I did expect and did not get was more insight into his battle with cancer. This part of his life is told in a very matter-of-fact way and details are kept to a minimum. He doesn't dwell on what he lost. In fact, I'm not sure I expected him to be as optimistic as he was in the book, but in the end, I am glad that the cancer did not rule his life even though on the outside looking in, it certainly seemed that way.

I don't read many memoirs but this book was a real treat. There's quite a bit of humor and the stories from his youth are told with a lot of heart. I found myself yearning for simpler times and I'd be lying if I didn't say that the man is missed. I never look at movies quite the same way. His sense of wonder, his ability to appreciate the small, creative nuances that directors injected into their films and his knack for saying exactly what he means is what made him a favorite in my eye.

What I remember most about Roger is probably consistent with what most people remember about him - and that's his love for movies and a champion for talented filmmakers. I think in an age where film criticism has become quite cynical, Ebert remained enthusiastic about the power of cinema. An example: many critics take their top ratings too seriously, only giving them out once or twice a year; by contrast, Ebert gave dozens of 4-star reviews in any given year. You didn't have to be a masterpiece of have Ebert's approval, he was just happy to have a good time at the movies and realized that each filmmaker is trying to achieve something different in their work.

Of course, Ebert wasn't afraid to let bad movies have a piece of his mind. My single favorite Ebert quote comes from the movie "The Spirit" (2008): "To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material."

"Life Itself" is a good title for the memoir. It's about a lot more than movies - it's about his early life, his career, and his worldview. I respect Roger for a lot more than his views on movies - he was also well-versed in issues like science and politics. I highly recommend this book if you admire Ebert's life and work. It's a great read.

Above all else, Ebert had a gift for writing - between the thousands of movie reviews and the time devoted on his blog and twitter during his later years, of course he is an effective communicator. His writing skill comes across in the book. He is very eloquent and knows how to use language, usually getting to the point quickly but not afraid the throw in the occasional amusing passage. After all, a memoir is nothing without humorous anecdotes.

If you want to explore Ebert's thoughts on movies, check out his film reviews at Roger Ebert dot com, or read or his "Great Movies" book series. He also recorded audio commentaries for several DVDs, including "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca".

(Note: This review refers to the Audiobook) I've always been a casual fan of Roger Ebert, having grown up watching his show in the 80's and 90's, and checking out his movie reviews occasionally. Having always enjoyed his writing (he's one of those movie reviewers that I enjoy reading even for movies I don't care about), I decided to check out "Life Itself", and I'm glad I did.

Initially, I had the same stumbling block several other reviewers have mentioned: I went in expecting a more traditional biography, which starts with the author's childhood and progresses in somewhat chronological order to the present (or their death). But that's not what this book is.

Instead, it is a collection of essays about every aspect of Roger's life (and believe me, he leaves no stone unturned! If you always wondered how Roger Ebert lost his virginity, then this book is for you! Granted, the story is told in a very tasteful way.)

Once I got into the "rhythm" of the book, with each chapter being a somewhat self-contained essay on a particular subject, I was hooked. I could usually hear one essay on my drive into work, and one on my way home, and several times I found myself sitting in the parking lot to finish one. And during the work day, I would find myself anticipating getting to listen to another one on the way home.

As I mentioned before, the variety of the subjects is amazing, and the book is formatted in such a way that if you find yourself not enjoying a particular essay, you can simply skip to the next one. This does have the downside of introducing a slight redundancy among several of the essays, where people or events are "introduced" more than once. It seemed to happen most often in the early chapters, dealing with his childhood, so if you notice it early on, rest assured it becomes less bothersome later in the book.

For those considering the audiobook, I highly recommend it. It is read with great skill by Edward Herrmann, and he does an outstanding job in every possible way (I also highly recommend his reading of "Unbroken").

(Note: Although I am posting this review after Mr. Ebert's death, I wrote the main draft of it before his passing. He will be dearly missed.)

When I started Roger Ebert's memoir "Life Itself," I think I expected the autobiography of one of America's best-known film critics would talk a lot about the movies. Maybe, say, the films that impacted him most, or what it was like the first time he saw Citizen Kane.

But Ebert brings up individual movies very rarely in this book. True, he talks about some of the experience of _going_ to the movies--such as what the old movie palaces used to be like. But most of the book is concerned with other things, especially people he's known. He relates his relationships with various actors and directors--always as people, never as celebrities. He shares the story of how he met his wife, how he finally confronted his alcoholism, what it was like being in South Africa during apartheid, what it was like to lose his ability to speak, and even why he loves dogs in films.

For much of the book, I thought these subjects were build-up. A foundation he was laying so he could talk about his life as a movie critic. About the time he shares some (indeed very apropos) insights about his reviewing philosophy, I thought "Ah, now we're getting to the good stuff!" Only to find after it another story about a fellow newspaperman. I finally started to get it, then. That to Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert was (and is) much more than a film critic. He has a whole life.

Ebert's unwavering candor in sharing his memories is bracing and, as he predicts, allows us to learn much more from him than if he were more guarded. It also fosters a sense of closeness. Ebert writes in the same earthy style that always characterized his reviews, and that the writing is (was) obviously cathartic for him makes it the more poignant. The way the chapters drift from subject to subject and time to time can be disconcerting at first, but then you start to see the book for what it is: the slow, thoughtful rememberings of an old man. It is a privilege to be allowed to share the stories of his life.

~

Roger Ebert reviewed many movies on TV and in print, but he had a few other interests as well, this memoir reveals. His penchant for traveling, and repeating the same trip, gave him detailed insights and memories. That could be why the book drags in parts: too many details, repetitions, and in-depth memories. Still, one takes the good along with the bad in autobiographies, and the many parts that sparkle with wit, dazzle with description, and pull the reader in, through, and out of Ebert's experiences are worth the read.
For someone familiar with Urbana IL, and Steak and Shake, and the Chicago newspapers that Ebert cut his journalistic teeth on, those chapters will be winners. For those who like to know how a man discovers sex, and sexual partners, read on. Finally, Ebert's health issues, which began with salivary gland cancer, show the reader how to survive and even thrive when in serious trouble.

Enjoyed LIFE ITSELF: A MEMOIR (Hachette Audio), written by Roger Ebert and read by Edward Hermann.

Ebert, the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize, devotes the first half of the book to his early childhood and college days . . . I got a special kick out of his recollections of going to the movies as a young boy:

* People my age can remember the sound of a thousand people laughing at once.

I remember those days, too . . . that said, I then think he went into too much detail about his life before he became a critic . . . in addition, I could have done with less information about his drinking days--though I did find this observation quite interesting:

* The problem with using willpower is that it lasted only till my will persuaded me that I could take another drink. At about this time, I was reading THE ART OF EATING by M.F.K. Fisher, who wrote, "One martini is just right, two martinis are two martinis and three martinis are never enough."

LIFE ITSELF came alive for me when Ebert started writing about the movies and the actors and directors he encountered as a result, including Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Russ Meyer, Martin Scorsese and many others . . . also, I was fascinated by his recollections of the cohost of his television show:

* From the day the CHICAGO TRIBUNE made Gene Siskel its film critic we became professional enemies.

I was also moved by the author's account of complications from his thyroid cancer treatment, which resulted in the loss of his ability to speak.

I borrowed this book from the library.. somehow I got the book on CD version by accident so I've been listening to it while driving to/from work every day. I'm on disc 12 now (the last one)...

I skipped some tedious parts, like when Ebert described his sex life (GROSSSSS - too much information) or some long descriptions of actors and directors that I didn't know... or his strange account of Russ Meyer - that guy's movies are WEIRD and gross.

As for the CD version, I didn't like that audio guy's voice. Has anybody ever heard anyone pronounce "oscillating" as os-KILL-ating? Gosh! Also he was not too good at doing the various accents encountered on Ebert's travels.

I liked the parts about eating at restaurants in the old days, making stamps, working with Siskel, meeting David Letterman, Chaz's devotion, etc. I'm sentimental about Ebert after seeing him on TV all these years. I hope he lives a long, long time and the cancer doesn't return.

PS the part that almost made me cry: when Ebert and his classmates laughed at a black girl who had lightened her hair. The way that Ebert looked back on it, like how she probably dyed it with her mom or sisters and they complimented her, and then she showed up at school and got teased... wow, it brings a tear to my eye. Kids sure are cruel.

I remember him most as part of Siskel & Ebert 952 episodes, 1986-2010.
This memoir was copyrighted 2011.

55 short chapters and a hand full of pictures stuck in the middle.
Quote from chapter 55 –
I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.

Ebert is a beautiful writer and his prose is terrific throughout the book. His choices in subjects, however, are a bit peculiar. He obviously is deeply passionate about some of the surprising topics in the book. His fondness for nostalgia comes across as he discusses Steak n' Shake, the Daily Illini, his old dog, the Tribune, Siskel and of course, Chaz. Some of his thought process seems random and disjointed -- there is little narrative thrust. For this reader, it was difficult to share the passion for some of the more obscure characters and I found myself drifting off during some chapters more than others. I considered putting the book down during the Tribune chapters, but wisely decided against it.

The book is clearly more for Ebert than for followers of his career. He races through the chronology of the TV show without a mention of the current iteration, or even Richard Roeper for that matter. He talks in depth about his experiences with Russ Meyer and a select number of actors and directors he cherishes, but little about other experiences near the film industry. Cannes gets discussed, but more for colorful characters he encounters rather than his own experiences. Even his own film festival is hardly mentioned.

Ebert has lived and continues to live a fascinating life. We get to know the man and some his tastes, but I think too many fascinating experiences were left on the cutting room floor.

Whether or not you will like this book probably depends very much on what you're expecting it to be. If you're looking to read an in-depth look into Roger Ebert's life as a film critic and deep analyses on the films he has loved and hated, then this might not be for you. Oh, a good chunk of the book is spent going over different aspects of Ebert's long, unbelievably successful and charmed career, and he writes in depth about several of his good friends in the movie business (famous and otherwise). But really, this is a memoir of Roger Ebert, the person, not Roger Ebert, the film critic.

And what a person he was.

His sheer passion and love for life and all the people he has known is clear right off the bat, despite the fact that he was writing this as an ill man only a few years away from his death. He, in a style that is sometimes chronilogical and sometimes not-so-chronilogical, tells stories from childhood on about all the people and places and things that have meant a lot to him

And I do mean all the people and places and thing. His mother. His father. His cousins and aunts and uncles, and then later his wife's cousins and aunts and uncles. In some places, this thoroughness helps the narrative, and in some places it hinders it, but it is never not charming.

Some highlights for me were: his newspaper days; his honesty about his alchoholism; Russ Meyer; John Wayne; Gene Siskel; Roger's love for books; his love for London; his love for his wife, Chaz (especially this).

Reading this book and learning about Ebert's passion for everything made me wish I were more of a film buff. It'd probably help if TV didn't outrank movies in basically every single quality category these days, but what can I do? Go back and watch all the greats, I guess. We'll see.

I should probably watch the documentary based on this book, at the very least.

Four stars.

Roger Ebert has spent a lifetime as a critic, immersed in the world of cinema as he thoughtfully appraises the work of actors, directors and screenwriters. Now, approaching the end of his seventh decade, he has focused his critical lens on his own life in this insightful, compassionate, witty and moving self-portrait.

LIFE ITSELF grew out of the blog Ebert began writing in 2008, and portions, such as the glimpse of his reading life, "Books Do Furnish a Room," will look familiar to its regular readers. Though it presents a comprehensive and, in some instances, roughly chronological account of his life, including the pleasures his work and attendant fame have brought him and the harrowing ordeal of his recent illnesses, each of the chapters works as a freestanding piece. Ebert's memory for detail is prodigious and his ability to evoke people and places compelling.

Born in 1942, Ebert "grew up in security and comfort" in Urbana, Illinois, his father an electrician for the University of Illinois and his mother employed by a finance company. Realizing only years later that "my parents never really had much money," he recounts with obvious pleasure what amounted to something close to an idyllic post-war Middle American boyhood. There are no revelations of sexual abuse or other dark subjects, but he acknowledges his parents' problems with alcohol, an affliction he overcame in 1979 with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. From the day he landed his first newspaper job at age 16, it seemed his career as a journalist was preordained, not least in the way he effortlessly slipped into the job of film critic at the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967.

Though the book eventually returns to more personal subjects (including his passion for travel, his seriocomic romantic life and his lust for a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk), about midway through Ebert shifts his attention to the world of film. There's an affectionate chapter on his friendship with softcore porn king Russ Meyer, with whom he co-wrote the screenplay for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Movie buffs will appreciate his portraits of actors like Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum and John Wayne, although younger readers may wish for some more contemporary portraits.

Ebert himself is quick to mourn how his loss of speech has curtailed his "freedom to interview" and the lengthening list of "new stars and directors coming up now whom I will never get to know that way." To his appraisals of directors Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and his directorial and personal idol, Werner Herzog, he brings the well-honed eye of the critic and the enthusiasm of a fan.

With the exception of a brief jab at critic John Simon, for whom he feels "repugnance," Ebert's memoir is free of rancor, remarkably so for a public figure who, like any other, has had to endure his share of criticism. If anything, the book is suffused with a sense of gratitude and tinged with regret that perhaps he wasn't able to repay fully the generosity of his mentors, Chicago legends Studs Terkel ("the greatest man I knew well") and Mike Royko among them.

In that spirit, Ebert devotes a chapter that's both tender and candid to his relationship with the late Gene Siskel, one that brought enduring celebrity to both and whose end when Siskel died of brain cancer in 1999 he still mourns. The intense rivalry that flashed in their often heated debates about movies was real, he confirms, but in the end he wistfully acknowledges that "no one else could possibly understand how meaningless was the hate, how deep was the love." And on the subject of love, the portrait of his wife Chaz is one any spouse would cherish.

Despite the mushrooming medical calamity that has dominated his life beginning in 2006 (an operation for thyroid cancer followed by three failed reconstructive surgeries left him with a severe facial deformity, unable to speak or eat), Ebert understands he's led a life many would envy. But he's never mistaken the glamorous surface of the world he inhabits for life's essence, and he's eager to offer his views on religion (he's a secular humanist), the afterlife (there is none) and politics ("'Kindness covers all of my political beliefs."). What makes the experience of spending a few days in his company even more pleasurable is an accessible, almost conversational prose style that has helped make him such a popular critic for nearly 45 years.

There are certain books it's a privilege to review, and LIFE ITSELF is one of that small number. Facing terrible pain, disfigurement and loss, Roger Ebert long ago could have retreated into a private, silent world. Instead, he's still sending out small sparks of light from the inside of a darkened movie theater and now in this honest, deeply felt reminiscence. That's a tribute to him, and a gift to all of us.

--- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg

Roger Ebert's Life Itself is a compelling, candid and highly entertaining memoir from the revered film critic. Although the book deals with movies by containing chapters on Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum and others, the book reveals that Mr. Ebert's is far from defined by the cinema. Each chapter details a certain person, event or place in his life (mother, father, summer, high school, his wife, his love for Steak 'n Shakes, his college newspaper, walking around London, his cancer treatment, etc.). While I used to enjoy watching Siskel & Ebert and I read his reviews from time-to-time online, I never paid much attention to Mr. Ebert. This book is so refreshing and candid, that I have a new found respect and admiration for the man. He's not looking for pity or really anything for current condition; he's just communicating the only way he can now through the written word. The book is thoroughly enjoyable to read and it also makes you think, laugh and maybe even cry a little. Through his own remembrances of his past, you'll find yourself thinking back on long ago forgotten people and memories.

The autobiography of Roger Ebert is very, very good. His stories are terrific; he's funny, bright, observant, and profound. I loved his anecdotes about places he went, growing up, journalism, alcoholism, friends, his wife Chaz, and people including John Wayne, David Letterman, and Gene Siskel. It was interesting to see how many of the "great" filmmakers are really dysfunctional, including Woody Allen, (who says he seriously contemplates suicide every day), Ingmar Bergman, and Martin Scorsese. I love his political creed: "Kindness covers all of my political beliefs." (I feel the same way, and that's why I'm a conservative.)
Roger's enthusiastic cynicism about religion seemed out of place given his well-practiced tolerance. I kept thinking I'd like to tell him: Judging all religions by his educational upbringing is like judging all movies by "Ernest Goes to Camp." And yet I liked his statement at the end of the book: He's not an atheist or an agnostic because he doesn't want to give anyone an excuse to label him with one word.
Ebert is a terrific writer, a perceptive and bright man, and a good influence on American letters. I listened to the book during one of the coldest, snowiest months on record, and during long, long drives to work on slow, clogged, icy roads, it was really fun to have Roger there to keep me company.