Reviews

Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase

Leah Rae

According to Hollywood legend, it was Harry Houdini who gave Buster Keaton the name “Buster” after watching the young Keaton tumble down a flight of stairs. This myth is debunked in Marion Meade’s biography Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase (Da Capo Press), but the magic of the early film era is intact, and graciously presented. With the trained eye of a filmmaker, Meade leads us through the life story of one of cinema’s greatest performers. She presents vivid descriptions of Keaton’s haunts, from the unclaimed land of pioneer-era America, to the dingy vaudeville halls, to the staggering wealth of infant Hollywood. Meade not only condenses Keaton’s remarkable life into three hundred pages; she also infuses her work with the same near-mystical aura that surrounded the great stone face himself.

Tags
No items found.

SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU

Reviews
Anson Ching

Fables Galore

Review of "Galore" by Michael Crummey.

Essays
Christine Lai

Now Must Say Goodbye

The postcard presents a series of absences—the nameless photographer,

the unknown writer and recipient; it is constituted by what is unknown

Reviews
KELSEA O'CONNOR

Championing Trees

Review of "Tracking Giants: Big Trees, Tiny Triumphs, and Misadventures in the Forest" by Amanda Lewis.