Alec Guinness
May 29th 2006 09:19
Guinness, by Piers Paul Read
Piers Paul Read was a friend of Alec's in the waning moments of his life, and due to this he managed to get Alec's widow and son to give their blessing to his biography of Alec Guinness, making this the only 'official' Alec Guinness biography (note: autobiographies not counting) to date. Guinness' widow died before the book was completed, and his son (whom he never had a good relationship with) didn't really seem to care (I'd assume), which leads this 'official' biography to be nowhere near as sanitized as it otherwise probably would have been.
Like Guinness, Read is a devout Catholic, so his biography seems fairly preoccupied with Guinness' faith... this is by no means a detraction from the book, as Guinness himself was fairly preoccupied with his faith. Read doesn't shy away from the darker corners of Guinness' life (and he has a few of them) and he manages to give an empathic (if not sympathetic) portrayal of a man who was, by his own admission, not very nice to know (he once smashed his infant son's wooden boat in a petty act of revenge!) A rather late observation in the biography from one of Guinness' friends pins the matter right through the heart (and I'm going to paraphrase here), "Alec was basically a not very nice man trying to be as nice as he could". What startled me furthermore for an 'official' biography (especially one by a Catholic who maintains he was Guinness' friend) is that the book meets the actor's homosexuality head on, acknowledges it, and traces Alec's struggle between his sexuality and his faith throughout his entire lifetime. Read is to be commended for his unflinching honesty.
Guinness in his Oscar-winning role, 'Bridge on the River Kwai'
If, like me, you're a fan of Guinness' work than this is a great tour of his career from start to finish. There's enough colour and gossip and realistic detail to keep it interesting for people with just a passing interest too.
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him and Ian McKellan... both gay, both knights... connection?