The Malaysian Insider :: Books
The Malaysian Insider :: Books |
| Piaf biography invites new look at French icon Posted: 30 May 2011 09:23 PM PDT  Burke's book is among the first to draw on more than 100 letters written by a young Piaf to one of her mentors. — AFP/Relaxnews pic Writer Carolyn Burke said her biography "No Regrets — The Life of Edith Piaf" delves deeply into the early life of the "Little Sparrow", and invites a reassessment of one of the most famous singers of the 20th century. "We get the young Piaf that we didn't necessarily know about even if we heard her sing," Australian-born Burke told AFP at the Sydney Writers' Festival this month. Burke's book is among the first to draw on more than 100 letters written by a young Piaf to one of her mentors, the scholarly Jacques Bourgeat, held in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and only recently released to scrutiny. "Those letters reveal aspects of Edith Piaf that we couldn't have known about," Burke explained. "You see her desire for an education, to better herself. We learn about her emotional and spiritual development even, because she had a strong wish ... to not only study poetry but philosophy." Burke said the letters reveal a tenderness between Piaf and the middle-aged, poetry-writing Bourgeat who instructed the young woman with scant education after a hand-to-mouth existence on what to read and how to improve her French. "So the next thing she's reading Baudelaire, she's reading Rimbaud, she's reading Plato. It's so moving to find out about this," she explained. "I was sitting there reading Edith Piaf's handwriting, seeing her mistakes in spelling and grammar and she says things to him like, 'I'm making progress aren't I? Is this a better letter?' He's trying to help her learn proper French. It's so important to know that." The unlikely pair, who were not lovers, corresponded for the next 25 years and Burke believes the letters provide "the very best source for a deeper look at who she was and how she developed." Piaf began writing lyrics shortly after meeting Bourgeat at a Paris nightclub, and Burke believes it was in part with his help that she acquired enough confidence and experience with the language to become a lyricist. "As a woman who had no education, no background, nothing ... her family wasn't even working class, they were the lowest of the low ... how she managed to do what she did with such generosity to others ... it's fascinating to me." Almost 50 years after her death, aged 47, Piaf remains a formidable cultural influence — inspiring singers as diverse as Martha Wainwright and Lady Gaga — and has a devoted fan following around the world. Burke's research led her to some of these fans, the collectors of Piaf items such as one of her signature black dresses, old recorded versions of her songs and home movies taken by members of her entourage. She understands their passion, having been struck by the beauty of the language and power of Piaf's voice when she first heard her sing on the radio as a student in Paris. The result is a biography which has been criticised as too kind to Piaf — known for her many lovers, her associations with the gangster class, and her reliance on painkillers in later years. Burke said her book was no "whitewash" but it was time for a kinder judgement on the woman who held listeners spellbound with the haunting voice she carried within her diminutive frame. "The problem is people have lots of stereotypes in their minds about who entertainers are and in particular Piaf. People think, 'Oh, we know who that was — poor self-destructive waif'," she said. "And my book goes completely in another direction which shows how creative she was and how much she shaped her own repertoire and legend. So I am offering a different look at her life." Burke draws on Piaf's experiences in World War II, how she helped shelter Jewish friends, assisted in a daring prisoner escape plan and sang songs written by Jewish writers contrary to German orders. At times her life reads as invention — her father was a travelling contortionist, her mother a singer who left her as a toddler and became a drug addict, and her early childhood included time living in her father's family's brothel. Burke said that much written about Piaf is exaggerated or even malicious. "For instance the business with the drugs, those were all prescription drugs that she took to manage her horrible chronic pain," she said. "The pain that resulted from several car accidents. What she took was prescribed by doctors so that she could go on singing." Burke wants to remind the world, and France, that Piaf was an entertainer who displayed enormous creativity, courage and resilience despite her difficulties and personal sorrows. "I mention that she was tyrannical and that she made her entourage do things exactly the way she wanted. They had to eat the same meal every night for a week if that's what she wanted. And they had to get up at 4am if she rang. "But it's true that I wanted to take a different perspective to show her rather admirable traits I think because they have been underplayed. "There may be time for a new look at Piaf in France. And wouldn't that be good if an Australian could do it?" — AFP/Relaxnews Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Posted: 27 May 2011 03:33 AM PDT Kennedy's 'Dr. Feelgood' The book reveals that President John F. Kennedy turned to Max Jacobson, or "Dr. Feelgood", for unconventional treatments during his trip to Europe in June 1961. — www.acus.org pic My book "Berlin 1961" steered away from the most sensational accounts and speculations regarding President John F. Kennedy's womanising and health problems. However, I did want to know whether any of these had substantive impact that such a book should record. The time when that seemed most likely was in June 1961 during President Kennedy's trip to Europe to see Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. What concerned me the most were the secret, excessive and perhaps irresponsible ministrations of a physician named Max Jacobson — better known as "Dr. Feelgood" by celebrity patients such as Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote — which were laced with amphetamines. For all the adoring French crowds, grand Gallic meals, and media hype generated by a thousand correspondents covering his first stop in Europe to see French leader Charles de Gaulle in Paris, President Kennedy's favourite moments were spent submerged in a giant, gold-plated bathtub in the "King's Chamber" of a nineteenth-century palace on the Quai d'Orsay. Behind all that the French theatre — and ahead of the President's next stop in Vienna with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev — lay a US president who was entering the most important week of his presidency as a weary and wounded commander in chief. He was inadequately prepared and insufficiently fit for what would face him in Vienna. Khrushchev would be scanning for Kennedy's vulnerabilities after the Bay of Pigs, and there were plenty. At home, Kennedy was facing violent racial confrontations that had broken out in the American South as African Americans grew more determined to end two centuries of oppression. The immediate problem revolved around the "Freedom Riders," whose efforts to desegregate interstate transportation had won only tepid support from President Kennedy — and were opposed by nearly two-third of Americans. Abroad, Kennedy's failure in Cuba, unresolved conflict in Laos, and tensions building around Berlin made his Paris-Vienna trip all the more fraught with risk. It seemed just another of his presidency's early misfortunes that Kennedy had seriously reinjured his back muscles while planting a ceremonial tree in Ottawa, and the pain had grown worse on the long flight to Europe. It had been the first time since his spinal fusion surgery in 1954 that he was hobbling around on crutches — though only in private. Kennedy's personal physician, Janet Travell, who accompanied him in Paris, was concerned about his heightened suffering and the impact his treatments might have on everything from mood to endurance during the trip. Years later, Travell would recall that Paris was the beginning of "a very hard period." She would give Kennedy two to three shots a day of procaine, a potent cousin of Novocain. She was also treating him for chronic adrenal ailments, high fevers, elevated cholesterol levels, sleeplessness, and stomach, colon and prostate problems. Travel kept an ongoing "Medicine Administration Record" to track the cocktail of pills and shots she provided Kennedy. What she couldn't log, however, were the more unconventional administrations of Max Jacobson, or "Dr. Feelgood," who had travelled more secretly to Paris and Vienna. Kennedy had been so pleased with Jacobson's remedies during his campaign that he recommended them as well for his wife Jacqueline after the difficult November delivery of their son John-John – and again to boost her stamina before the Paris trip. It would later be discovered that his injections contained hormones, animal organ cells, steroids, vitamins, enzymes and – most troubling – the amphetamines to combat fatigue and depression. The potential national security consequences of this concoction were considerable coming just before his crucial meeting with Khrushchev. The potential side effects included hyperactivity, hypertension, impaired judgment and nervousness. Between doses, his moods could swing from overconfidence to bouts of depression. History would never record how this medication influenced President Kennedy's performance in Vienna. Though by Kennedy's own later account, he was about to confront two of the worst days of his life – days that he feared might convince Khrushchev of his weakness and prompt him to test US resolve in Berlin in a manner that could lead to war. For more about the book, go to www.fredkempe.com. — Reuters |
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