Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers

by Leslie Bennetts

Overview

Named one of "40 Gifts for the Book Lover on Your List," by Good Housekeeping: The definitive book about Joan Rivers' tumultuous, victorious, tragic, hilarious, and fascinating life.

Joan Rivers was more than a legendary comedian; she was an icon and a role model to millions, a fearless pioneer who left a legacy of expanded opportunity when she died in 2014. Her life was a dramatic roller coaster of triumphant highs and devastating lows: the suicide of her husband, her feud with Johnny Carson, her estrangement from her daughter, her many plastic surgeries, her ferocious ambition and her massive insecurities.

But Rivers' career was also hugely significant in American cultural history, breaking down barriers for her gender and pushing the boundaries of truth-telling for women in public life. A juicy, intimate biography of one of the greatest comedians ever -- a performer whose sixty year career was borne, simply, out of a desire to make people laugh so she could feel loved -- Last Girl Before Freeway delves into the inner workings of a woman who both reflected and redefined the world around her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316261296
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	11/15/2016
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	943,552
File size:	25 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Leslie Bennetts is the author of the national bestseller The Feminine Mistake as well as a longtime Vanity Fair writer and former New York Times reporter. At Vanity Fair she wrote many movie star cover stories in addition to articles on subjects ranging from priest pedophilia to U.S. antiterrorism policy, and she was the first woman ever to cover a presidential campaign at the New York Times. Bennetts has also written for many other magazines, including New York, Vogue, More, The Nation, and Glamour.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Last Girl Before Freeway 3

Chapter 1 Nobody Ever Wanted It More 13

"But She Has No Talent!"

Chapter 2 Dying Is Easy. Comedy Is Hard 38

Chapter 3 Dicks and Balls 54

Breaking Into the Boys' Club

Chapter 4 Stardom and Wifedom 69

Happily Ever After?

Chapter 5 Westward Ho 86

California Dreamin'

Chapter 6 The First Lady of Comedy 103

Nothing Is Sacred

Chapter 7 Victim as Enforcer 121

Terrorizing Women Into Submission

Chapter 8 The Temptation of Joan 134

Poisoned Apple

Chapter 9 A Thankless Child 152

"How Sharper Than a Serpents Tooth"

Chapter 10 Debacle 165

The Death of a Show, a Marriage-find a Husband

Chapter 11 Recovery 188

The Long Road Back

Chapter 12 Reinventing a Career 202

"I Can Rise Again!"

Chapter 13 Art and Commerce 216

All in a Day's Work

Chapter 14 Home Sweet Versailles 234

Marie Antoinette Meets Auntie Mame

Chapter 15 High Society 243

Putting On the Ritz

Chapter 16 But Is It Good for the Jews? 256

Sex, Politics, and Religion

Chapter 17 Men Are Stupid 269

Beauty and Betrayal

Chapter 18 Back to the Top 287

Fighting Like "A Rabid Pit Bull"

Chapter 19 Fashion Forward 299

Triumph of the Mean Girls

Chapter 20 Daughter Dearest 314

How to Succeed in Show Business

Chapter 21 The Time of Her Life 331

Fame, Friends, and Fun

Chapter 22 The Final Mountain 349

Gathering Shadows

Chapter 23 Grand Finale 364

Sudden Exit, Pursued by Bear

Chapter 24 Legacy 382

Laughter and Liberation

Epilogue: Updates from the Afterlife 393

"You WERE fat, you bitch!"

Acknowledgments 403

Note on Sources 405

Index 407

What People are Saying About This

Larry King

"Joan was a great friend of mine and this is one hell of a book. A terrific read from start to finish, it captures Joan completely. Five stars."

author of The Diana Chronicles - Tina Brown

"The story of Joan Rivers is also the story of the trials and tribulations faced by talented and ambitious American women for decades, and Leslie Bennetts tells her story in riveting, surprising, heart rending, and hilarious detail."

Gloria Steinem

"You may think you know Joan Rivers, but I'll bet you'll be shocked by the revelations in Leslie Bennetts' irresistible biography. Before there was a women's movement or much hope for a woman in stand-up comedy, Joan made it by ridiculing everything she craved, from beauty and respectability to fashion and power. With unmatched energy and an ambition that made Napoleon look like Gandhi, she broke the boundaries of taste and commonsense—and widened the path for us all."

author of The Bridge Ladies - Betsy Lerner

"Leslie Bennetts has delivered a big, juicy biography of comedy's First Lady that takes the reader behind the scenes in the male dominated entertainment industry. That would be fascinating enough, but what stays is a portrait of a woman whose drive is fueled almost entirely on self-loathing. We know by now that most comics are in great pain—this account understands the high cost of all of those outrageous over-the-top screamingly funny classic Joan Rivers zingers."

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/12/2016
This comprehensive biography painstakingly charts the late Joan Rivers’s journey from growing up in Westchester, N.Y., feeling not at all pretty (the title of the book refers to a joke about how her mother hoped to pawn her off on a man, any man, who passed through town) to succeeding in comedy and becoming a veritable polymath of the business and entertainment worlds. Through interviews with family, staff, and comedy insiders, Vanity Fair contributing editor Bennetts (The Feminine Mistake) draws a portrait of the groundbreaking comedienne that is both deep and sweeping. She fact-checks Rivers on her own anecdotes, noting, for example, that she probably never met Marilyn Monroe, despite titling one of her books after a supposed conversation in which the actress told Rivers, “Men are stupid... and they like big tits.” Sometimes the portrait turns unsavory. Laughter gave Rivers power, which she was not afraid to wield against other women whom she saw as her rivals. She was the first to ask stars on the red carpet “Who are you wearing?”, a line of questioning resisted today by feminists for its lack of substance. Scared of losing it all, she stockpiled fancy china and Manolo Blahnik shoes. But Bennetts isn’t overly critical of Rivers, focusing also on her good deeds for “the little people”—like sending a badge from her TV show Fashion Police to a young fan—and her drive to succeed in a comedy world dominated by men. Bennetts’s reporting gives readers unparalleled access to her subject, which comedy fans, and those just fascinated by superstardom, will greatly enjoy. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Leslie Bennetts's biography of Rivers, Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers, provides an eagle-eyed view of Rivers's entire life, and the vistas are breathtaking.—Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books

"Revelatory....Even if you think you know 'one of the world's most uninhibited mean girls,' Bennetts has some surprises."—Jane Sumner, The Dallas Morning News

"The Rivers story is well known, but Bennetts [...] brings nuance and empathy to her remarkable life".—The Toronto Star

From the Publisher

02/01/2017
Like her costume jewelry hawked on QVC, the comedy of the late Joan Rivers is an acquired taste. There is no denying that millions found her vicious, slash-and-burn barbs hilarious, while others cringed, wondering if she went too far joking about 9/11 and the suicide of her husband. Bennetts does an admirable job of describing the mostly unhappy life Rivers led and her attempts to overcome certain aspects (weight problems, religion, a prettier sister, etc.) for which there were no easy solutions. Her famous feud with Johnny Carson is extensively covered, along with reasons why the cause of the conflict may not be what Rivers claimed it to be. Erin Bennett is excellent at presenting the gossipy-type prose in a manner that captivates listeners, but after it's all over, you might find yourself questioning whether one word in the subtitle—liberation—was ever achieved by Rivers. An outstanding look into the philosophy of comedy and the mind-set of those who devote their lives to it. In the end, there is nothing really very funny about contemporary humor. VERDICT Rivers's fans will enjoy this intimate glimpse into her life. Recommended for large collections and those specializing in the entertainment industry. ["Celebrity mavens of well-written biographies will enjoy this title": LJ 9/1/16 review of the Little, Brown hc.]—Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA

Library Journal

This is a superficial, lurid, and confused biography of the iconic comedian, who died in 2014 at age 81. Erin Bennett’s narration is intelligent and effective, but it can’t rise above the many problems of the biography itself, which brings nothing new to Rivers’s own published accounts and interviews. Jarring jumps in time happen throughout the entire audiobook without adding thematic elements or explanations of Rivers’s often paradoxical motivations. While the book visits all of the principal milestones in Rivers's roller-coaster career, the work still reads like a rehashed star profile rather than the insightful look at a complicated public life one hoped it would be. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

This is a superficial, lurid, and confused biography of the iconic comedian, who died in 2014 at age 81. Erin Bennett’s narration is intelligent and effective, but it can’t rise above the many problems of the biography itself, which brings nothing new to Rivers’s own published accounts and interviews. Jarring jumps in time happen throughout the entire audiobook without adding thematic elements or explanations of Rivers’s often paradoxical motivations. While the book visits all of the principal milestones in Rivers's roller-coaster career, the work still reads like a rehashed star profile rather than the insightful look at a complicated public life one hoped it would be. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-09-26
The life and legacy of Joan Rivers (1933-2014).Rivers grew up in a state of constant contradiction. Her mother's desire to have the nicest things put the family in perpetual financial struggle, and Rivers wanted to become a famous actress but struggled with her “plain” appearance. She desperately wanted people to find her funny, but for the longest time, no one did. But as she wrote later in life, “I knew instinctively that my unyielding drive was my most important asset.” Many consider Rivers’ style of humor to be unnecessarily mean, but her in-your-face approach was courageous at a time when female comics “couldn’t even make a bodily reference.” Rivers eventually became a household name, finding success as a late-night guest host with Johnny Carson and then later through E! and QVC. But there was so much failure first, and former Vanity Fair writer Bennetts (The Feminine Mistake, 2008) seemingly includes it all. “After years of being pampered, I am still angry. I am angry because of the Show Bar,” Rivers said, referring to the humiliating gigs of her early career. Since she would do anything to succeed, she hated people (especially young, beautiful people) who did not work hard to keep up their appearances. She never thought she was mean because she believed the targets of her jokes could take it, and she was always equally critical, if not more so, of herself. Rivers just “didn’t understand weakness.” Bennetts portrays her subject as a woman much more complex than her outwardly abrasive personality might suggest, and while some sections fly by, others are so weighed down by the particulars, like the reasons behind Rivers leaving the Tonight Show, that the book is at risk of losing the vibrancy readers will no doubt expect, given its subject. A thorough, sweeping look at the woman who pioneered the idea that "outrageousness can be cleansing and healthy" and the turbulent personality that brought it to life.

Kirkus Reviews