If you're looking for a comprehensive biography of David Letterman's life (which I was), this is not the book for you. The author goes into exhaustive analysis of Letterman's comedic style and how it was successful, or not, on his various shows. Letterman comes off as a cranky, nasty and very unhappy man who does not treat women very well. I used to enjoy watching his late night show, but I definitely have a less than flattering opinion of him now. Nevertheless, the book was moderately interesting. ( )

Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night by Jason Zinoman is a 2017 Harper publication.

It has been nearly three years since ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ went off the air. For some reason, it seems a lot longer than that.

When I saw this book, it struck me that, I really didn't know all that much about him personally, save for the big sex and blackmail scandal he admitted to on the air, and his infamous stalker.

I hoped this book would give me a little insight into Letterman’s life, but I would have been happy just to read about his upbringing, and how he climbed his way up the chain to become a major late night phenomenon, because I realized I didn't even know the basics.

I was only able to tune in to ‘The Late Show’ on occasion, not because I didn’t like the show, but because I had to be up too early in the morning. When I had a DVR, I watched it more frequently, but my kids were always wanting me to watch ‘Conan’, so I was not exactly a loyal viewer. In fact, it got to the point where I only looked up the ‘The Top Ten List’ and skipped the rest.

Still, I always found Letterman to be somewhat of an enigma. He was different, offbeat, and of course the king of irony, but he also had a few rough edges and sometimes I just wasn’t quite sure how to take him. I doubt I'm the only one who was ever taken aback by his approach to his female guests, in particular.

This book explores Letterman’s various moods, his brand of comedy, as well as giving the reader insights into his personal relationships, while taking us through his career highlights- his successes and failures, all the way up to his final show.

I’m not sure if anyone can ever truly penetrate Letterman’s veneer, but it is obvious he is complex, plagued by demons and insecurities, and could be very difficult to deal with, but, if nothing else- he is original.

I didn’t come away from reading this book feeling all that much differently about Dave, one way or another. I didn’t like him more or less, after having taken this journey, but I did feel as though I might understand him better.

What I did enjoy about this book was the history of late night talk shows, watching the way Letterman was able to carve out his own niche, and the way his show evolved over the years. There are some fond memories, some great sketches, as well as some awkward moments and of course a few controversies along the way.

It was an amazing journey and Dave is certainly an interesting person, much more intense than even appears on the surface. I did enjoy reading this book, and found that, while it stuck with a chronological format for the most part, various avenues were explored as deeply as they needed to be, even if it meant going backwards or forwards in time.

The layout is organized, is easy to read and follow, and is thankfully and refreshingly unbiased, in my opinion. The author has no problem pointing out Dave’s less than flattering moments or aspects of his personality that made him seem difficult or even vulnerable at times. I loathe biographies with too much hero worship or show signs of sycophancy. This book seems like a fair assessment of Dave’s life and career, which is something I really appreciated, along with a special attention to detail and of course the obvious amount of research he put into this book.

I have recently discovered Dave has a new show coming to Netflix. I'm not sure if I'll watch, but the guest list sounds intriguing, so I may give it a try.

Overall, this an in depth look at Letterman’s life and career, is well written, fair and very insightful.

4 stars ( )

The author really liked words. He used a lot of them. Definitely was way more analyzing of things than I was when watching the show. He derived a lot of meaning. Liked the insight and opinion. Got to be a bit much at times. ( )

A very detailed account of David Letterman's life - almost too detailed. The book centered around his show and how his life played out through it. We listened to it and Hub stopped listening after 6 tapes; I finished it. PS. I never watched the show, but still found it interesting. ( )

Great book. The subject comes off as a very unhappy man.'I did not know that L on CBS
bs beat Leno for the first couple of years. The comic is very funny, but repressed. The book goes through all of his battles with networks, writers, and lovers, especially Merrill Markoe. It is not a conventional bio, but enough details are provided so that this was a good bio.

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