I was wondering were the name "Carew" sounded familiar and then the wife told me about this review. Could David Bret now have resorted to giving himself bad reviews on Amazon.co.uk???? 
1.0 out of 5 stars judgmental, boring tosh, 25 Mar 2012
By carew "corinnacarew" - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Diana Dors: Hurricane in Mink (Hardcover)
There are many things wrong with this book, but the most offensive is the constant misogynistic references to Dors, particularly when she was young. There is no sense of trying to understand why a young girl might dress to look older but not actually want to engage in sexual activity with the men she attracted. So Bret instead labels her as a `p***ktease', says she deserved her reputation as a promiscuous, underage girl - even though she did not engage in sex. This hypocritical stance means that he believes other's versions of events over hers and questions her intentions at every step. It made for a deeply unpleasant read and I was put off after only a few chapters. Sure, Dors was flawed, like most people are, but there are ways of depicting the complexities of a person that do not resort to name calling and surface judgments but instead offer an intelligent, insightful, presentation of the subject. Good biographers do this. Bret's writing is a million miles away from such an approach.
Even if Bret wasn't so judgmental about his subject, this book reads like a poorly written wikipedia entry by someone intent on spouting as much trivia as possible about those he is writing about. This makes it boring at the same time as being offensive. On top of this, a small but valid point from the perspective of a reader: it is always off-putting when an author feels inclined to punctuate with exclamation points, especially as frequently as Bret does - it reeks of lazy writing and another example of a judgemental attitude.
I would have given this book no stars if Amazon allowed. That this book survived an editor's eye and got published is astounding. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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1.0 out of 5 stars judgmental, boring tosh, 25 Mar 2012
By carew "corinnacarew" - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Diana Dors: Hurricane in Mink (Hardcover)
There are many things wrong with this book, but the most offensive is the constant misogynistic references to Dors, particularly when she was young. There is no sense of trying to understand why a young girl might dress to look older but not actually want to engage in sexual activity with the men she attracted. So Bret instead labels her as a `p***ktease', says she deserved her reputation as a promiscuous, underage girl - even though she did not engage in sex. This hypocritical stance means that he believes other's versions of events over hers and questions her intentions at every step. It made for a deeply unpleasant read and I was put off after only a few chapters. Sure, Dors was flawed, like most people are, but there are ways of depicting the complexities of a person that do not resort to name calling and surface judgments but instead offer an intelligent, insightful, presentation of the subject. Good biographers do this. Bret's writing is a million miles away from such an approach.
Even if Bret wasn't so judgmental about his subject, this book reads like a poorly written wikipedia entry by someone intent on spouting as much trivia as possible about those he is writing about. This makes it boring at the same time as being offensive. On top of this, a small but valid point from the perspective of a reader: it is always off-putting when an author feels inclined to punctuate with exclamation points, especially as frequently as Bret does - it reeks of lazy writing and another example of a judgemental attitude.
I would have given this book no stars if Amazon allowed. That this book survived an editor's eye and got published is astounding. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse | Permalink
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