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Audition: A Memoir
by Barbara Walters
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$29.95 |
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$11.98 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$17.97 (60%) |
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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.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| What a Life!! |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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When I first started the book I thought I would just get into her background which is very intersting, learning about her history, her dad, her sister but then you really get caught up in her story and do not want to miss a drop. Her life is so dense and so chock full. I was so interested in how she got from here to there and I must commend her for all of her hard work and dedication to her biological family. My intent to skip chapters never occurred. I read this book thoroughly and was impressed with her honesty and the full life she lead. While she seems to have come to terms with her daughter, I was still amazed in that end chapter at her good-bye party that no one thought to invite her daughter to this important event in her life. That was a real disconnect for me and I often wondered try as might have how good a mother could she have been trying to have a career as a woman in those days. No wonder Katherine Hepburn's interview had such an affect on her. The book reveals the human side of her and a lot of details about people in her life. It makes you see that no one leads a perfectly charmed life. Barbara Walters was truly the author of her own life and takes you on the journey of it in this book. It's quite a ride.
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| Barbara Walters has had a difficult life and writes well in telling about it. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Barbara Walters is an intelligent, diligent and loving person and this shines through in her autobiography. She was a pioneer in television journalism and was punished for that often by men who were chauvinists or just plain mean. Thank God for those men who realized she had talent. She, as many women of her generation, has guilt feelings because her career necessitated a lot of time spent apart from her mother, dad and sister Jackie, who was mentally disabled and also from her daughter Jackie with whom she is now at peace. I think she really cares about the people she interviews and does her homework before she speaks to them. She is amazingly frank about her affairs and her marriages and illustrates again and again how hard it is to have personal relationships when you work as hard as she has over the years. I enjoyed the book.
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| fascinating life |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I've seen Barbara Walters on TV and know that she's a famous TV personality, and from what I've seen her on TV, she seems like a very knowledgeable as well as funny lady, so when the book came out I naturally grabbed it. I had never really known much or researched much about her so this book is quite eye opening. I think it's very well written, at points painfully candid. I read some other reviews who seem to say that the book made them like her less. Well, I think to some effect the book took away some of the halo effect of her being so famous and all that, it presented her as a very real person, and if I think about that carefully, I believe it made me like her even more. She's only human and she's real. (duh). I liked the book a lot. It also opened my eyes to the intrigue of network news, what an interesting industry/world.
And boy did she work hard and sacrifice to get to where she is. Being a career mom myself, one sad realization is that to have a career as great as hers, she certainly paid her price in her personal life. I guess to some extent I was hoping for the miracle, for some confirmation that you could do it all...
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| Fantastic! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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First of all, let me say that I'm not an avid book reader. And if a book starts off slowly, I'm not one of those who will patiently plod through it hoping it'll get better. In other words, you need to hook me pretty quickly and thankfully this book did. I have always been fascinated by people's stories and this "story" is so well written that its nearly impossible to put down. Barbara writes with candor, warmth and quite a bit of self-effacing humor. Its truly a joy to read.
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| Required Reading |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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If you are a baby boomer, this book is required reading. It is fantastic! Well written and full of wonderful insights. What pleased me most is the honesty. This is not just another biography by some celebrity. I personally have seen only a few dozen of Ms. Walters interviews, but that made no difference. The combination of biography and history is very refreshing.
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