All thumbs up
Sue Blechl, Special to the Gazette
Friday, February 17, 2012
“Life Itself: A memoir,” by Roger Ebert. Grand Central Publishing, 2011.
If you enjoy movies, you’ve probably followed Roger Ebert’s television and newspaper critiques for the last forty years. As the cohost of Siskel and Ebert at the Movies, Roger Ebert shared his passion and expertise with TV viewers for twenty-three years. Now Ebert shares his personal life, in a candid, thoughtful memoir that begins in his hometown, Champaign, Illinois, and covers Chicago, Hollywood, Cannes, London, and other exotic locales.
Ebert organizes his book by people or theme. It’s not strictly chronological. He does begin with family and friends. Born in 1942 and an only child, Ebert attended Catholic school. His parents turned out to be alcoholics, and he devotes a chapter to his own alcoholism. In 1979 Ebert joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and he has been sober ever since. There are lots of anecdotes about school and family and adventures. We learn about Ebert’s devotion to Steak ‘n Shake, his loves, his failures, and his desire to be a journalist.
His newspaper career in Chicago and elsewhere is the prelude to becoming a film critic, and then also a television personality. Ebert includes a number of specific chapters on special people in his life: Russ Meyer, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Martin Scorsese, Gene Siskel, and Studs Terkel. These chapters were fun and full of personal observations that we would never learn in a standard biography. Married relatively late in life to Chaz, an African-American lawyer, Ebert shares his happiness with her children and extended family. Then the health issues begin, including cancer. Ebert was a “radiation baby”, a standard medical treatment in the forties and fifties that often results in tumors and cancer. After a number of surgeries on his throat and jaw, Ebert is left without a voice, and without the ability to eat or drink. Now he has declined to have further surgeries, and he copes with his challenges with the help of his wife and family. His spirit is positive and accepting; his intellect is sharp.
Having watched many episodes of “Siskel and Ebert at the Movies” and other of Ebert’s shows, I enjoyed reading this memoir. It was full of humor and honesty, leaving out no weaknesses and never gloating on the successes. The book portrayed a passionate man who continues to live a full life, even with its difficulties.
— Emporia Public Library staff and volunteers write “On the Shelf.”