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Book details

American prince

a memoir

by Tony Curtis

Published 2008ISBN 978-0-3074-0849-5

"All my life I had one dream and that was to be in the movies."He was the Golden Boy of the Golden Age. A prince of the silver screen. Dashing and debonair, Tony Curtis arrived on the scene in a blaze of bright lights and celluloid. His good looks, smooth charm, and natural talent earned him fame, women, and adulation--Elvis copied his look and the Beatles put him on their Sgt. Pepper album cover. But the Hollywood life of his dreams brought both invincible highs and debilitating lows. Now, in his captivating, no-holds-barred autobiography, Tony Curtis shares the agony and ecstasy of a private life in the public eye.No simple tell-all, American Prince chronicles Hollywood during its heyday. Curtis revisits his immense body of work--including the unforgettable classics Houdini, Spartacus, and Some Like It Hot--and regales readers with stories of his associations with Frank Sinatra, Laurence Olivier, director Billy Wilder, and film industry heavyweight Lew Wasserman, as well as paramours Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe, among others. As forthright as he is enthralling, Tony Curtis offers intimate glimpses into his succession of failed marriages (and the one that has endured), his destructive drug addiction, and his passion as a painter. Written with humor and grace, American Prince is a testament to the power of living the life of one's dreams.From the Hardcover edition.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.

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What the reading experience may hold

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Themes to notice

Nonfiction · Fiction

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Content notes

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Reading experience

Warm tone · Steady pace

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Who it may suit

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At a glance

This book's DNA

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ToneWarm
LuminousDark

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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc

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Spoiler-free
12345
PeakRelative emotional intensity
American princeTony Curtis
Heightened4/5

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Before you choose

A quick reading snapshot

Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.

Reading lengthLength not listed
Publication eraModernFirst published or edition dated 2008
Primary categoryNonfictionAlso cataloged under Fiction
ISBN-13
978-0-3074-0849-5
Language
English
Edition record
OL19890185M
BookenDeX editorial lens

A more thoughtful way into this book

This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.

Good to know

Preview the edition to decide how it fits your available reading time.

Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.

Try this reading approach

Read for connection, not completion.

Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.

Three questions to carry with you

  1. Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
  2. Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
  3. How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?

Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.