I know there's this showy public mourning that goes on when someone famous dies, but when Roger Ebert passed, I felt a real sense of loss that I'd never be able to read something new from him again. Before he was gone, though, he wrote an autobiography: Life Itself. It was made into a documentary, which I watched but didn't think was particularly special. But I bought the book, hoping it would be better. And for me, it was. Not only was it better, it was wonderful.

Life Itself is structured loosely chronologically, beginning with Ebert's family history and going through to when he was near the end of his life and knew it. The first few chapters, which detail how his ancestors came to the United States and his parents' upbringings as well as his own early years, are probably the weakest. While most of us are interested in these details for ourselves and sometimes our loved ones, reading about someone else's is not exactly captivating stuff. Once Ebert gets to his own life, though, the book really finds its footing and takes off. He recounts his life with insight but largely without excess sentimentality: his father's early death and his mother's alcoholism, his experiences on the college paper at the University of Illinois, his journalism career, his international travel, his own alcoholism, the joy he found with his wife Chaz, his relationship with Gene Siskel, his meetings with prominent actors and directors, and his own insistence on an aggressive course of cancer treatment that likely lost him his jaw and ability to speak. He clearly knew that this book was his last chance to put his own story out there and it's obvious that he didn't want to squander the opportunity. Given that he spent his final years in a painful and uncomfortable situation, it's remarkable how little bitterness his writing contains. Instead, he uses his last testament to to reflect on a full life, with all the moments of joy and sorrow it contained.

If you're thinking about reading this book, you're probably already interested in Roger Ebert and his writing. But if you haven't, I recommend going to his blog (still online) and browsing around a little. If you like what you find and enjoy autobiography/memoir style books, this will likely be a win for you. If that's not something that intrigues you, you may appreciate the writing but find it a largely pointless exercise to read. For me, I found it moving and a likely future re-read, but I could completely understand if it's not for everyone. ( )

Honest, heartbreaking, and so well written. For anyone who loves film. ( )

Starting out this read like it was going to be a dry recitation of biographical facts – where Ebert was born, what schools he went to, so on and so on – and then somewhere along the way it turned into an intimate portrayal of a truly remarkable life. Of course the main subject was Ebert himself but the way he wrote about his own life became a perceptive look at the world he lived in and those around him. I ended up with 14 pages of annotations in my ereader, too many to include here, but one that I especially liked was this quote, “No good movie is too long. No bad movie is short enough”. It reminded me of this line from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, “If a book is well written, I always find it too short”, and that brings up my one and only criticism of this memoir – it’s too short. ( )

I waffled between 3 and 4 stars for this one for a while. Call it three and a half.

I basically never read memoirs or autobiographies, but I was surprised to spot a used copy of this in the film section at the Book Barn and snapped it up because, well, it's Roger Ebert.

I've always thought Ebert was a solid writer, but Life Itself desperately needed another pass through the editors. Some of the chapters show a little too plainly as having been written for his blog and adapted later to act as chapters in his memoirs. Some of the chapters almost repeat verbatim information we already got in other chapters. Still others are weirdly out of place chronologically (maybe this is my ignorance of the form showing, but it seems to me that if your first chapter is about childhood and your last chapter is ruminating on death, the stuff in the middle should come in some kind of order). The overall effect ends up being less "a unique man looks back on his life" and more "Grandpa tells the same stories for two hours".

I feel like I've been a little harsh, though. There are definitely some good parts here - Ebert could have been a spectacular travel writer in some alternate universe, looking at some of the portions talking about his wanderings in Europe and Africa. The picture he paints of working at the Sun-Times as a young man is fascinating as well. For much of the book it seems like Ebert is very guarded about certain matters, but towards the end of the book he opens up a bit more. In a way, I'm frustrated by it, because if the rest of the book had been as good as the last few portions this would have been a very different review.

Overall, I'd say that I'm glad that I read this, but at the same time, I'm not in a hurry to read it again. ( )

Ebert’s path from only child growing up in Urbana, Illinois, to American’s best known film critic (along with his partner Gene Siskel is a true joy to read. I don’t know how this book escaped my notice for eight years. It’s a memoir that anyone can enjoy, but being a journalism major in college and having taught journalism, it held more interest for me than the average memoir. Stories about Chicago will fit the bill for anyone in love with that city. Ebert knew every square inch of the Windy City including all of the famous, not so famous, and infamous bars in the city. He hung out with many of the icons of Chicago including Studs Terkel. His interviews with all of the major Hollywood stars during the better part of four decades are fascinating. Ebert’s battle with cancer, which left him disfigured, is a major part of the end of the story. Never once, however, did he resort to sympathy soliciting as he talks about his condition with intellect and logic. His discussion of religion, including his own humanistic beliefs is candid and refreshing.
I really enjoyed this book even though, of course, I knew its sad ending. Ebert was a sensitive journalist whose writing skills were surpassed only by his faith in the industry he spent his adult lifetime covering. I highly recommend “Life Itself.” ( )