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
Publishers Weekly - Audio
02/27/2017
Bennett does her best with this biography of Joan Rivers, the comedian who is credited with forcing open late-night TV and stand-up comedy clubs to women. Bennett tries to liven up the prose by imitating Rivers’s style and delivery when quoting her brash onstage humor and recounting numerous offstage anecdotes about her neuroses, sinking defeats, and soaring successes, but she mostly just plows through the book sentence by sentence. Anyone interested in Rivers’s life and career will find this audio edition worthwhile. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly
★ 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.)
From the Publisher
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
Library Journal
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
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
Kirkus Reviews
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.
