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Audition: A Memoir
by Barbara Walters
| List Price: |
$29.95 |
Unavailable for
purchase at this time |
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Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Format: Bargain Price
Young people starting out in television sometimes say to me: “I want to be you.” My stock reply is always: “Then you have to take the whole package.”
And now, at last, the most important woman in the history of television journalism gives us that “whole package,” in her inspiring and riveting memoir. After more than forty years of interviewing heads of state, world leaders, movie stars, criminals, murderers, inspirational figures, and celebrities of all kinds, Barbara Walters has turned her gift for examination onto herself to reveal the forces that shaped her extraordinary life.
Barbara Walters’s perception of the world was formed at a very early age. Her father, Lou Walters, was the owner and creative mind behind the legendary Latin Quarter nightclub, and it was his risk-taking lifestyle that gave Barbara her first taste of glamour. It also made her aware of the ups and downs, the insecurities, and even the tragedies that can occur when someone is willing to take great risks, for Lou Walters didn’t just make several fortunes—he also lost them. Barbara learned early about the damage that such an existence can do to relationships—between husband and wife as well as between parent and child. Through her roller-coaster ride of a childhood, Barbara had a close companion, her mentally challenged sister, Jackie. True, Jackie taught her younger sister much about patience and compassion, but Barbara also writes honestly about the resentment she often felt having a sister who was so “different” and the guilt that still haunts her.
All of this—the financial responsibility for her family, the fear, the love—played a large part in the choices she made as she grew up: the friendships she developed, the relationships she had, the marriages she tried to make work. Ultimately, thanks to her drive, combined with a decent amount of luck, she began a career in television. And what a career it has been! Against great odds, Barbara has made it to the top of a male-dominated industry. She was the first woman cohost of the Today show, the first female network news coanchor, the host and producer of countless top-rated Specials, the star of 20/20, and the creator and cohost of The View. She has not just interviewed the world’s most fascinating figures, she has become a part of their world. These are just a few of the names that play a key role in Barbara’s life, career, and book: Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, Menachem Begin, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Katharine Hepburn, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Christopher Reeve, Anwar Sadat, John Wayne . . . the list goes on and on.
Barbara Walters has spent a lifetime auditioning: for her bosses at the TV networks, for millions of viewers, for the most famous people in the world, and even for her own daughter, with whom she has had a difficult but ultimately quite wonderful and moving relationship. This book, in some ways, is her final audition, as she fully opens up both her private and public lives. In doing so, she has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating.
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| Good reading |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I learned a lot about the TV news business. The information about her personal life was secondary, and presented very appropriately. Very well written. Good for a book club.
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| Walters is a great journalist, not a great writer |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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It seems as if Barbara Walters didn't want to leave out any details in writing this long book. But the main thing she doesn't say about her life that I wanted to know was how and what she was thinking as she interviewed the world's most famous people. She lays it out like a catalog, but it lacks true insight and feeling.
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| Stellar Performance |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Well written book Arrived in perfect condition. Interesting history about t.v. networks,bruised egos and world events.
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| name dropper walters |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book, however, it goes on a bit too long. It was detailed and I realize Walters is a journalist and details are her game, but I could have edited it down at least one hundred pages. Her life was quite interesting and overall she gives good information but not enough on the personal side. I think that historically it is a valuable story because Walters was a pioneer for women in the media in many ways.
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| She did and does her job A rich,honest, courageous and entertaining book |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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There are so much to say about this book, and I suspect many other reviewers have said much of it. I would only say that I came away from the book with a tremendous respect for Barbara Walters, her honesty her courage, her remarkable energy, her loyalty to her parents and sister, her devotion to her daughter, her wisdom in dealing with life's difficulties, her hanging in there in tough situations and knowing how to make the best of them. And much much else. I do have reservations about the book and about some of the things she does. I do not believe she tells the 'whole truth' about her marriages. I do not applaud her willingness to speak with each and every dictator and tyrant , if it will be a good interview. But overall it is impossible not to have great admiration for her great capacity to care about , and help a wide audience know about all kinds of interesting, and often remarkable people. This book tells a lot about the American media world, and American history in the time of her life.
While the book is a good interesting and entertaining read throughout I found that the story of her early years was particularly moving for me. She brings back memories of many lost things, and illustrates again and again how things once cared for as important fall in time to being completely forgotten.
An admirable book by an admirable person.
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