Cosmo Landesman

I know Landesman from his work as the film critic of the Sunday (I almost never agree with him) and for being the less famous of Julie Burchill's ex-husbands. Despite this, I was still curious to see what he'd written about and was intrigued by the outline of his parents who are fame-obsessed and bit part players in various underground movements. The sub-title here sums up the book neatly - it is about his parents' quest for fame mixed in with commentary about society's obsession with celebrity. I'm not too sure how well these two ideas meshed together as it seemed apparent that the Landesman's fame obsession was very much their own problem and quite apart from the rest of society's love of reality television stars. His parents don't want to be famous for doing nothing, they are both incredibly creative, but they also love the limelight. There is very much an emphasis here on their exploits during the author's lifetime, often from the angle of his chronic embarrassment, and I would have liked to hear more about their earlier days when they know the Beats and the father ran a bizarre sounding nightclub, as it seems this book does cover the period when they weren't that successful. The other thing I didn't quite understand was for the all the talk of failure, how they managed to earn a living for all this time - an inheritance that will last them a few years is mentioned at one point, but given the decades the book covers, surely they needed another source of income? But these are minor gripes, because I really did enjoy this book for the colourful characters of his parents and the insight into our culture.… (plus d'informations)