Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
New Yorker writer Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace) mixes his own commentary with the raw and revealing transcripts from his conversations with Stephen Sondheim (1930--2021) near the end of the composer's life, conducted for what became a posthumous profile. Sondheim extols the virtues of a good rhyme ("like sinking a pool ball into the pocket") and of fidelity to one's vision ("Don't write what you think people want you to write. But what you want to write."). On the personal front, he largely retreads familiar territory such as his contentious relationship with his mother, though he does reveal a few quirks, such as affinities for Radiohead, Breaking Bad, and Microsoft Word. Interspersed throughout are Max's insightful reflections on the delicacy required for interviews: "Profiles are fraught efforts," Max writes, "profiles of the famous famously fraught." In the end, Max paints a nuanced and sympathetic portrait of a notoriously private figure, enhanced with his own astute and earnest perspective: "What a burden Sondheim labored under," he writes, "to have so many of us depending on him." Sondheim's fans shouldn't miss this. (Nov.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim passed away at the age of 91 in November 2021. He left behind a body of work ensuring his legacy for generations to come. An unfinished musical and an incomplete New Yorker profile were also left. Interviewer Max (Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story) culled those 2016--19 Sondheim conversations for a February 2022 tribute. This book amasses those exchanges with a woven narrative of Max's observations of Sondheim. The results provide tantalizing details into Sondheim's efforts producing an all-new musical, while reflecting on his struggle with writing fresh material and general mortality. If Sondheim were alive, with the finished musical behind him, these interviews would be simply reflective of his journey into completed works. Max intended to profile rather than memorialize. Yet, in Sondheim's absence, these interviews take on an unexpected import and catalog a journey seemingly unfinished. What might have been meandering small talk now becomes significant. As such, the context becomes, at times, more emotive than the content. VERDICT A loose latter-day chronicle of one of theater's irreplaceable voices; will be cherished by scholars and enthusiasts as a testament to Sondheim's creative process and to the man himself.--Gregory Stall
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Final interviews with the greatest composer and lyricist in Broadway history. New Yorker staff writer Max had wanted to meet Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) ever since, in 1977, the author's mother brought home a signed copy of the album Side by Side by Sondheim. Falling in love with the "tricky rhythms and harmonic improbabilities" and characters who "were made of doubt, of missteps, of ambivalence," Max became a lifelong fan. In 2016, he wrote to Sondheim's assistant to propose a profile and a short piece for the New Yorker. To the author's surprise, Sondheim responded and agreed to what would become a series of interviews from 2017 to 2019. Those interviews form the bulk of this book. It's a little crass when Max says he felt he had a better chance than previous journalists of getting the famously guarded Sondheim to open up because "he was old now. Coming to the end, to state it plainly." He admits that, before the first interview, "I could not recall even the most rudimentary things about him," and that, thanks to his lack of knowledge, "I would be able to push him just far enough out of his routine to get a fresh glimpse of who he was." That's a dubious theory and, as this book proves, a flawed one. Much of the information has been documented elsewhere. But Sondheim was a fascinating raconteur, and the book shines when Max allows him to discuss his work. Among the best sections are those about Sondheim's difficulties trying to compose a musical based on films by Luis Buñuel, a project he didn't complete; a long conversation on the genesis of the original Merrily We Roll Along; and little-known tidbits--e.g., that A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sondheim's Broadway debut as composer and lyricist, was the first show ever to be workshopped. An adoring but surprisingly ill-informed book about a Broadway legend. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
