I impulsively picked up [b: Brando’s Smile|18377961|Brando's Smile His Life, Thought, and Work|Susan L. Mizruchi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552940343l/18377961._SY75_.jpg|25993808] because I am fascinated by genius of every type and by charisma. Even though he had fewer great roles then Robert DeNiro has had, in his best films, Brando is widely considered to have been the best actor of all time.

If that is a surprise, based on widely known anecdotes about his refusal to learn his lines for films such as Apocalypse Now (the book does discuss why this might not have been mere laziness or eccentricity), note that, in the first few lines of his piece on Brando in Rolling Stone in 2004, after Brando’s death, Jack Nicholson declared: “Marlon Brando is one of the great men of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and we lesser mortals are obligated to cut through the shit and proclaim it.”

[b: Brando’s Smile|18377961|Brando's Smile His Life, Thought, and Work|Susan L. Mizruchi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552940343l/18377961._SY75_.jpg|25993808] was written by Susan Mizruchi, a professor of English literature at BU, whose specialties are American literature and film, religion and culture, literary and social theory, literary history, and history of the social sciences. She has been a fan of Brando since her childhood and this book is a labor of love.

Mizruchi’s goal in writing this book was clearly to demonstrate that Brando was much more than a celebrity, that he had great intellectual depth and was profoundly committed to social causes — and almost certainly, that he was a figure worthy of her passion. An important impetus for the writing of this book was Mizruchi’s discovery of Brando’s library after this death. He died with a library of about 4000 books, many heavily annotated. Offhand, I can’t think of many current actors who I think might have such a library. Maybe Daniel Day-Lewis?

It was not simply the number of books. My own library now contains a book about Marlon Brando, I have two books about basketball “trivia” I suppose you might call it, and I don’t think that I can claim any intellectual cachet based on such possessions.

While some readers may get sick of hearing Mizruchi discuss Brando’s library — there are 61 references to library and 165 to books — I personally was convinced of his intellectual depth and of his real passion for leaving the world a better place than he found it. For instance, we learn that Brando had a collection of 700 books about Native Americans, a collection worthy of an authority in the field.

Most Americans learned about Brando’s interest in the plight of the indigenous peoples of North America when Brando sent activist Sacheen Littlefeather to the Oscar ceremony to decline his Best Actor award for The Godfather. But this was much more than the stunt which it might have appeared to be. He had been involved in activism for this cause for many years, was recognized as an important ally by Native American leaders — and his library indicates that he had learned much and thought deeply about these issues.

Much of the book is of course about what you would expect it to be about: Brando’s acting talent and why great actors such as Jack Nicholson considered him a genius. We also learn about Brando’s youth, astonishing romantic life, children and the tragedies which befell his family in his later life. But this is a book by a professor of English literature who has worshipped Brando since she was a little girl, so you will find limited gossip and limited space allocated to criticism of Brando’s choices.

It’s a bit of a hagiography in that regard, but since I have no need to make any objective conclusions about Brando, I didn’t really care...
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This biography of Marlon Brando is somewhat unusual in that it concentrates mainly on his professional life and personal philosophy, rather than delving into details of his personal life. After describing Brando’s childhood (with a loving but alcoholic mother, and an overly strict father), Mizruchi goes on to talk about his career in acting, and discusses many of his most famous film roles. She describes his attraction to a role, his preparation for it, and how he went on to become a character, as well as other details about the making of each film. In each case, Mizruchi draws comparisons between the character or storyline of the film and connects it back to events in Brando’s own life.

For that reason, this book is not the one to read if you are looking for Hollywood gossip or salacious details about Brando’s many relationships and often difficult personal life. Indeed, while his career is detailed in relatively chronological order, you would struggle to learn anything else about his life that is not already a matter of public record. For example, Mizruchi mentions his marriages, but does not give any details about the relationships or why they didn’t ultimately work out. However, I found that somewhat refreshing, as instead, I learned far more about Brando’s beliefs, his humanitarianism and his parts in civil rights campaigns, which he clearly felt passionately about.

Mizruchi had unprecedented access to Brando’s own personal book collection, which numbered around 4000, and which – as we are frequently reminded – he annotated heavily. She uses such annotations, as well as his varied choice of reading material to draw conclusions about the man himself. The sheer vastness and variety of the collection does support her view of him as an intelligent and curious man, who found enjoyment in learning.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed this book. As mentioned before, I did not learn an awful lot about Brando’s personal life, but I certainly learned more about what was important to him, his views on acting and his determination to leave the world a better place than he found it. At times, it is a little sycophantic – there’s no doubt that Mizruchi is a devoted Brando fan – but it is a respectful, interesting and clearly very well researched biography.

I would recommend to fans of Marlon Brando, or fans of the film making process. ( )