The Road to Xanadu

by Simon Callow

Book Overview

"A splendidly entertaining, definitive work." --Entertainment Weekly In this first installment of his masterful biography, Simon Callow captures the chameleonic genius of Orson Welles as only an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670867225
• ISBN13: 9780670867226
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 2.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.0" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

a (rare) factual book on Welles

Orson Welles, by his very nature, made himself an almost impossible subject for biography. He told so many stories about himself that in later life, even he didn't know what the truth was anymore. He also spent most of his life as the ultimate hustler living a roll that was bigger than anything he ever played. The genius of this book is that it cuts through the nonsense and gives us the truth about Welles...or as close as anyone will ever get. He lays bear the rise of the boy genius from school into the theater, on to radio and then to Hollywood. The theater portions are the best part of the book. In some ways, just the portions of the book dealing with Welles in the theater would have been enough for a great work. We get a level of detail about each production that no other book really provides. The author also avoids the obvious tendancy to focus on the sensational and gossip. There is nothing new really in terms of Citizen Kane because that particular set of events was long-ago mined for anything of worth by many others. The coverage of Welles on Radio isn't as complete as his work in the theater, but its still good. I think Peter Bogdonovich appears way too much in the book. As a source, he is rather flawed in the sense that he is so devoted to promoting the Welles legacy. The author, in my opinion, comes just short of saying that the manic portion of Welles career was fueled by amphetamines. He drops every hint in the deck but only comes close to saying it once. I'm not sure what the sensativity is about it at this point. I suppose it could be lack of final confirmation from the inside. What comes across in the book is a talented Welles whose attempts at self-promotion ultimately destroyed everything he did. At every stage of the book, he seems more intrested in creating the aura of genius and being publically acclaimed rather than methodically creating works. The book shows him burning every bridge behind him on a trajectory for hollywood. The book ends with him at the apex with nowhere left to go but down.

The American

Simon Callow's thick and detailed biography of Orson Welles is a staggeringly thorough account of the actor/director's life, from his birth up until the release of his most famous picture, CITIZEN KANE. Callow goes to great lengths to separate the man from his inhumanly grandiose reputation. Armed with years of research, his personal interviews, and a keen sense of humor, Callow sets off to discover the real early life of Orson Welles. He finds a man smaller than his gargantuan myth, yet fascinating and brilliant all the same.Orson Welles is a notoriously difficult man to write about with any great degree of accuracy. This is attributable to the fact that Welles seems to have spent almost as much time publicizing his work as he spent creating. The difficulty arises when one realizes that the majority of what he said wasn't strictly accurate, and yet it's that publicity which has been accepted for many years. Not to say that Welles was lying, or making up facts (at least, not all the time). It would be closer to the truth to say that Welles was prone to exaggerations, sometimes wild ones when it concerned himself. For the sake of his image, and for the sake of his career, he would embellish and overstate what he was doing and what he had done. Some of the more hysterical (and insightful) portions of the book are those where we see Welles describing something that had occurred several chapters previous. The story that gets told later can be almost totally at odds to what the actuality of the situation was. The further on one goes into the book, the farther away from reality these descriptions become. Welles was obsessed with constantly reinventing himself, creating a gigantic legend that became increasingly difficult for any mortal man to live up to.This is not to say that Simon Callow is merely running down Orson Welles, or making his achievements seem unworthy. Indeed, Callow appears genuinely impressed by what Welles achieved in such a short amount of time. While Welles apparently preferred his fantasy image of himself, the truth was quite remarkable by itself; Welles packed more living into his first twenty-five years than most people do in a lifetime. The respect that he commanded as an actor/director was unprecedented for someone of his young age. But Callow emphasizes with how Welles thought of himself. He sees Welles' drive to continually achieve more. As a fellow actor, Callow understands and relates to the need for constantly promoting oneself for the benefit of one's career. He compares events in Welles' later life to the man's childhood, looking for the reasons for the overriding desire to drive farther and faster.The book does tend to take slight detours on its road to CITIZEN KANE's Xanadu. Many of the subjects tangentially related to the main feature are given adequate descriptions. Welles' parents, his hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin, the state of the American theatre in the 1930s and other assorted topics all be

Requiem for a Huckster

In his later years, Welles often complained that he spent more time trying to find money to make films than he did actually making films. And seeing Welles still scrambling for cash in his last days as a commercial pitchman for such products as Dark Tower and Paul Masson Wines ("Where we will sell no wine before it's time"), you know he was right. This entertaining and exhaustive book by Simon Callow doesn't deal with most of his film career - only covering up to 1941. (We're still waiting on part two to cover the rest. Simon? Simon?). However, what it does do is clear up much of Welles' confusing past (he often told conflicting stories in interviews) and delve into the two main works that set Welles up for stardom...and the fall...in Hollywood - The War of the Worlds radio broadcast and Citizen Kane. And no wonder they were sharpening knives for the boy wonder when Welles publicly put down the Hollywood community, his Kane script bit the hand that feeds him by taking obvious shots at newspaper mogul Randolph Hearst and he was given the kind of directorial freedom veteran directors could only dream of. Some people may tire of reading about Welles' theatre days with Houseman, anxiously waiting to get to the meat of his film career. But to understand why Welles became a "has-been" at 26 and the long slide to come, this is required reading.

The World Was His Xanadu...

.... "He wandered it's corridors, looking for money." Simon Callow gifts us with the deep portrait of Orson Welles from a gay man, an actor, and, like Welles, a virtuoso of many fields of endeavor. Like Shakespeare, Orson was comfortable, and indeed dependent upon, those of us who lean toward the familiar in the search for love. (Because, perhaps, of his own stoney heterosexuality). Be that as it may, Mr. Callow's own insights are what add volumes to this biography beyond what all else has already been written. His chronicle of America's Depression-era Federal Theater Project, and Orson's impact upon it, invites us in to the exiting era of the 1930's. Orson's Road to Xanadu is sad, and it's glorious -- amazing. Read Simon Callow's biography of America's Great Voice -- Orson Welles.

OUTSTANDING

Writing a biography can be compared to being the captain of a ship sailing through hazardous waters; we, the passengers/readers, trust our captain to guide us safely to our destination, avoiding the storms of revisionist excess, (i.e. Paul Alexander's fetish/fantasy biography of James Dean), and avoiding the sand-bars of worshipful praise or savage deconstructing. Callow is our Good Captain, steering us carefully, ethically and factually through the early life and career of a Great Genius. Callow's biography is refreshing in that he does not dwell on endless psycho-analysis or speculation, if he cannot substantiate an item, he leaves it there. Almost incredible in this age of paparazzi-revisionism-and outright falsehood. He respects his readers and Callow's tone through-out this extremely well-written book is that of a conversation with a trusted friend. If you are a Welles fan, you will enjoy reading of his exploits in Dublin at the Gate Theatre and the passages dealing with the Mercury are pure gold. Callow's portrayal of Welles' experiences in Hollywood at the time of CITIZEN KANE will leave you in awe that Welles could have survived that period of his life; but it also reveals the sheer energy, tenacity and genius of the man. Callow shows a man burning both ends of the candle...burning them off with a blowtorch. It's heartbreaking to read how Welles, for all his genius, is already in the early days of his life sowing the seeds of his own downfall through excess. An excellent book about an incredible man written by a wonderful actor...and a wonderfully decent man. Why can't more biographies be this ethical?