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| Audition: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Barbara Walters
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $9.43
You Save: $20.52 (69%)
New (73) Used (71) Collectible (12) from $9.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  238 reviews
Sales Rank: 691
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.2 x 2.2
ISBN: 030726646X
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780307266460
ASIN: 030726646X
Publication Date: May 6, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Visible shelf wear -- may have some notes/markings on pages
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| Customer Reviews:
 Quite a Life May 15, 2008
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Walters, Barbara. "Audition: A Memoir", Alfred Knopf, 2008.
Quite a Life
Amos Lassen
I have always loved Barbara Walters but I must admit that I really did not want to read her book because of all the hype. Nevertheless, when my copy came I sat down with it and found myself enjoying every word. It's over 600 pages long so there was no way I would get through it in one sitting; I do have a life and I had to prepare for my summer school classes.
Walters has lived quite a life both personally and professionally and she comes across as a compassionate woman and an inspiration. She exudes class and humanity. She can interview people like no one else can and has done so. Her list ranges from Monica Lewinsky to Elizabeth Taylor to presidents, world leaders, disgraced public figures and just anyone else that has affected our lives.
Her childhood was fascinating. Her father ran the nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter so she grew up around celebrities. She went where women had not been before and became a co-host of a major American news show and when she went onto 20/20 with Hugh Downs her star rose and she became one of the most famous women in the world.
Much has been said about her "adulterous" affair with the American senator but the book is so much more than that. Barbara Walters is an ambitious and tenacious women and even though she says that her life has been one large audition, there is no question that she "got the job".
If anything really characterizes the book, I think it is Walters' style and class. Sure Barbara Walters had an affair with a married man and sure, she has guilt feelings about not always being there for her sister but all of us must remember and consider how life would be without someone like Barbara Walters. She takes the opportunity in her book to let us into her life and even though she has not done everything the way some of his might have wanted, Barbara Walters, to me, at least, remains a major figure in our lives. She is an extraordinary woman and has led an extraordinary life.
Barbara Walters May 19, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
A little long winded (600 pages), but definitely entertaining as she's had a colorful career and is still going strong in 2008. It's taken me a week to read it and it's been a walk through time, a history lesson, an eye opener to what one woman can do in a lifetime against minor adversity and with some lucky breaks thrown in.
I'm donating it to our library so others can enjoy.
 Okay. Not what I hoped for May 27, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This was a very long book, and for me personally I could have done without the interview history, and I wish she just focused on her personal life. She is such a public persona, that I think we all know her professional history without hearing it bit by bit. Anyhow, I was touched by her writings about her spouses, her parents, her sister, her friendships, her daughter, and such. But to go into each interview, and each job through the years, was kind of boring. It went on and on. I strongly suggest getting this one from the library, or borrowing it from a friend.
She really had something to write about !! June 22, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What a remarkable woman, and what an amazing career and life she has had! When you first open this book of almost 600 pages, the very first thing that grabs you is the flyleaf--before you even turn a page of the book, there begins an alphabetical listing (continued on the inside back cover) of the many famous interviews she has had, with names so big that a meeting with any one of them would be a lifetime event for most of us. And she lists at least 600 of them! Everyone knows about her chats with the presidents and their wives, other heads of state, and celebrities of all kinds. But Walters reminds us that she went on to develop more personal ties with some of them: Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and Sadat and Begin during the peace process, for example. During a few of her chapters, you can see where she crossed the line from being simply a journalist to being someone who actively helped to shape events herself. At a minimum, she was certainly instrumental in crafting how the public saw the major stories and players of her day, and there is always an intricate dance between an emerging public perception and what happens subsequently. Walters chased down, for months and if need be for years, the interviews she wanted to land--and there was always fierce competition to snare what she calls these "gets." In the long run, it was one of the things that burned her out on network journalism and caused her to turn more toward her top-rated Specials and The View. Along the way, however, I think she earned a Ph.D. in history and another one in political science.
But no doubt this book will be best remembered for the candor with which Walters speaks of her own personal issues. We hear all about her engaging father (whose many brilliant show businesses successes each ultimately ended in failure), her depressed and insecure mother (who suffered from the blows of fate until her death at 91), her mentally retarded sister Jackie (whom Walters both loved and hated), and her three marriages and numerous affairs (causing her to say that she will never marry again). But Walters' greatest love is for her adopted daughter Jackie, who moved from a teenage rebellion involving drugs and running away to a successful later career running a residential therapy facility for girls. Secondarily, we hear about the frosty on-camera relationships she had with her male colleagues Frank McGee and Harry Reasoner. Sexism was alive and well in the television field as Walters began and advanced her career, and it is stinging to be reminded of just how blatant and cruel it was. Any reader approaching a "tell all" memoir of this scope will want to know if the author was honest in telling her story and, as far as I can tell, Walters pulled no punches and held little back. The writing is good, the short chapters are easy to read, and this is the kind of book that you want to go on and on.
As a final note, the photos Walters provides are a delicious meal in their own right. Although not arranged in chronological order, they are an important counterpoint to the text. Many depict individuals not much discussed in the book, so they provide an amplification of her story. And, yes, perhaps Walters did not start out as the prettiest face in the business, but with great care she has grown more beautiful through the years. She now appears quite lovely. Though she is coy about her age, you can infer that she is breathing upon 80. We should all look so good! I started this read as a mild fan, and now I truly admire her. Hats off to you, Barbara!
 yawn June 25, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Nothing against Barbara Walters, as she is obviously an accomplished woman, however, this book is long winded. She believes her life is far more interesting than I find it to be. Not to mention the fact that if you have heard all her never-ending press interviews etc., you already know everything in the book. If a book is good, I can't put it down until I'm finished, HOWEVER, I struggled to finish this. I forced myself to continue reading, hoping that I might finally 'get into it'. That never happened.
My advice: wait until your local library has it. Not worth the money.
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