KISS and Make-up

Book Description

You wanted the truth, you got the truth—the hottest book in the world!

Fueled by an explosive mix of makeup, costumes, and attitude, KISS burst onto the music scene thirty years ago and has become a rock institution. The band has sold more than eighty million records, has broken every concert attendance record set by Elvis Presley and the Beatles, stands behind the Beatles alone in number of gold records from any group in history, and has spawned more than 2,500 licenses.

There would have been no KISS without Gene Simmons, the outrageous star whose superlong tongue, legendary sexual exploits, and demonic makeup have made him a rock icon. KISS and Make-Up is the wild, shocking, unbelievable story, from the man himself, about how an immigrant boy from Israel studied to be a rabbi, was saved by rock and roll, and became one of the most notorious rock stars the world has ever seen.
Before Gene Simmons there was Chaim Witz, a boy from Haifa, Israel, who had no inkling of the life that lay ahead of him. In vivid detail Gene recounts his childhood growing up in Haifa under the watchful eye of his beloved, strong-willed mother, a concentration camp survivor; his adolescent years attending a Jewish theological center for rabbinical studies in Brooklyn; his love of all things American, including comic books, superheroes, and cowboys; and his early fascination with girls and sex, which prompted him to start a rock band in school after he saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.

KISS and Make-Up is not just the classic story of achieving the American dream through the eyes of an immigrant boy making good, but a juicy, rollicking rock and roll read that takes you along for the ride of your life with KISS, from the 1970s, when they were the biggest band in the world, through the ’80s, when they took off their world-famous war paint, and into the ’90s, when they came back bigger and badder than ever to become the number one touring band in the world.

In his own irreverent, unapologetic voice, Gene talks about the girls (4,600 of them and counting); his tight bond with KISS cofounder Paul Stanley; the struggles he and Paul had with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss and their departures from the group; the new band members and Eric Carr’s untimely death; the enormous love and affection he has for the people who put him there in the first place—the KISS Army and the ever-loyal KISS fans around the world; his love life, including stories about his relationships with Cher and Diana Ross and with Shannon Tweed, Playmate of the Year, mother of his son and daughter, and his companion of eighteen years; and much more.

Full of dozens of photographs, many never-before-seen pictures from Gene’s private collection, KISS and Make-Up is a surprising, intimate look at the man behind the mask. For the first time Gene reveals all the facets of his complex personality—son, rock star, actor, record producer, businessman, ladies’ man, devoted father, and now author.

Customer Reviews:

Gene Simmons Boring?.......2007-09-10

YES! Gene Simmons book is boring. I was expecting more detail when telling of past relationships. I know Gene lived with Cher and Diana, but that's it?!? I know Gene has had sex with thousands of women, but that's it?!? I know Shannon is the love of Genes' life, but that's it?!? I was expecting a book I couldn't put down. Instead I bought I book I had trouble finishing.

A good read...........2007-08-27

Having been a fan of Kiss for well over twenty eight years...my mouth was watering for this book. This book shares many, many high points and many low points. Several times through out the book I struggled with picking it up and finishing it. The beginning was extremely interesting abouthis mother and his growing up etc.But, once Kiss started touring it got really drowned in too much detail that was at times filled with too many pointless stories that were much like listening to your grandfather that has forgotten he has told you the same story a hundred times already-it became the same repeatative complaining and whining about the same issues and made me lose interest then once he got back onto his personal ife with Cher and Diana Ross meeting Shannon and having the kids it got good again-I am not disappointed that I read it and recommend anyone who is interested in Kiss to read it...but, I wouldn't read it for a second time!!!

It's all about the power........2007-01-10

I've never heard Kiss music; I first learned about Gene Simmons from his "Family Jewels" TV show, which I liked. It showed him to be a loving family man and I was curious to know more, so I listened to his audio book, "Kiss and Make-up." It was fascinating. One needn't be a fan to appreciate his strong hard work and unprecedented success. He was born in Israel and came with his mother to America at age 9. As a lonely boy he loved superhero comic books, because superheros were powerful, and that is what he wanted to be. He had the boundless love and encouragement of his mother and started playing in bands as a teenager. One thing led to another and his Kiss band became a worldwide phenomenon.

He devotes much of the book to his legendary conquests of women, from groupies to Cher and Diana Ross. His relationships with bandmates is also discussed at length. His reading voice is a monotone, but the story is so interesting that one hangs on his every word. A shrewd businessman and tireless entertainer, Simmons has truly acquired the power he always wanted. This is a must for Gene's old fans and for new fans, like me.

Simmons on Simmons.......2006-12-02

Gene's book isn't just his side of the KISS story, but it's an attempt at an honest autobiography. Honest is a relative term here, as Gene's entire life has been about bluster and bluff and the art of deception, and so one approaches this book a little warily but hoping for the best, taking a shot at wading through the giant swamp of ego and self-congratulation that is the Simmons style in quest of some real knowledge.

As regards his take on KISS, I had hoped for a lot more road stories, stuff on the songs themselves, and some kind of honesty about the relative levels of success at various times. He does gripe about Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, as who wouldn't?, but there's not a whole lot of credit for much of the stuff Ace did right. Ace's contribution to the band's sound is brick-on-the-head obvious if you compare the early LPs with anything from the 80s. How sad. But anyhow, Gene's relationship with Paul Stanley, which is now at 40 years and counting, gets very little ink. There is no acknowledgement of just how far financially things had gone south by the late 80s, and nothing about the switching of management and agents. Gene has trouble dealing with people as actual people and not merely tools to be manipulated on his way to his idea of success. So the stuff on KISS was, to me, an incomplete and very shallow treatment, a disappointment.

Gene's writing about his family, on the other hand, was often touching and came off as thoughtful and sincere. Yes, there's the bluster about how no woman will tie him down, yada yada yada, but his love and respect for his mother is noble (but his being raised an only child to a single mother with little money and having to learn a new language in his youth goes a long way to explaining everything since then). Likewise, he treats Cher and Diana Ross and now Shannon Tweed with tact and discretion. Finally, his love for his children, which apparently surprised even him, is uplifting and positive.

There is a bit of self-help advice about work, living soberly andfrugally, taking care of business yourself, and keeping one's eye on the ball at all times. None of this is bad advice. The way Gene dispenses it can be annoying sometimes.

The stuff on the girls over the years is just what one would expect; if anything, Gene takes himself less seriously here than elsewhere, as there are funny stories about the truly ugly or superannuated that often shared his bed or couch or breakfast table or car.

The book was worth reading but frankly could have been much better. Those looking for the definitive story of KISS should look elsewhere.

An interesting biography becomes a slam piece.......2006-11-13

Gene Simmons' autobiography, Kiss and Make-up, starts out as an interesting read but then becomes very frustrating. Anyone familiar with Simmons knows he has a tremendous ego and that ego is in full force here. Born Chaim Witz in Israel, Simmons was born in poverty and was raised primarily by his mother, a strong willed woman who survived the concentration camps that claimed most of her family's lives. Based on this, you could see where Simmons obtained his will to succeed. Simmons, along with Paul Stanley, saw a vision for Kiss and their work ethic, business savvy, and determination are to be commended. Fortunately, Gene doesn't take all the credit as he gives much respect to those who helped them achieve their goal such as Bill Aucoin, Sean Delaney, Neil and Joyce Bogart, Bob Ezrin, and many others. However, the more you read the book, the more it becomes a slam piece against original Kiss members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss. As noted in the book, the band was a democracy as the quartet shared the profits equally. Sure, Gene and Paul carried the load and probably deserved profits more suited to their contributions. However, the continuous slamming of Frehley and Criss makes Simmons sound like a bitter man. He's also off on a couple facts about the band such as Bon Jovi being the opening act on Kiss' 1980 European tour (Bon Jovi didn't form until 1983) and the fact that they followed the hair metal trend of the early 1980's when, in reality, hair metal didn't really take hold until a couple years later. The book certainly is not without merit as the chapters chronicling his childhood, Kiss' early years, his relationships with Cher and Diana Ross, the making of their Destroyer album, and the death of Eric Carr, are very intriguing. All told, Kiss and Make-up is a decent read that would have been better if not for the constant criticism of Frehley and Criss.

Kiss and Make Up (Diary of a Crush, Book 2)

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Good!
Loved it
Read this book in a day, thats how good it is!

Kiss and Make Up (Diary of a Crush, Book 2)
Sarra Manning
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142406422

Book Description

It's sizzling summertime, and Edie can't wait for the partying to start. Trying to forget about the dastardly Dylan, Edie's taking her new squeeze Carter to the Glastonbury music festival to have some fun. But guess who's there already, looking totally gorgeous? That's right . . .

Customer Reviews:

Good!.......2007-03-07

It is the continuing story of Dylan and Edde. They are constantly fighting and then making up. I am glad with what happens in the end. I am excited for this story to continue.

Loved it.......2006-07-27

I've read all 3 books in the Diary of a Crush series. With number 1 & 3 being my favorite ones. This is the second one and I still love it even though it's my least favorite in the series. (WARNING: Don't read this part if you haven't read the first book in the series: French Kiss)

Even though everything seems ok at the end of the 1st book, things don't stay that way. Edie and Dylan are having major relationship problems and then it comes down to the point where something major happens and Dylan & Edie break up.

But that is just only the beginning. Later, when she returns from a summer apart from Dylan, she finds out that everything had changed. Dylan is now dating the queen of evil Veronique, Shona gets closer to Veronique and stops hanging out w/ Edie,and Edie is trying to get through life. Even though Dylan is with someone else, he still wants Edie as a friend and Edie accepts but of course it can't be that easy! More conflict occurs.

I'm not giving the whole thing away so go read it!! I have to admit that I really did like this one but it's just not as strong as the 1 & 2 of the DOAC series.

Read this book in a day, thats how good it is!.......2006-06-23

After reading the first book (French Kiss) I ran right out and bought this book. I read this whole book in one day because I couldn't put it down. The romance of Edie and Dylan just sucks you in and you have to know which direction they are going to go in next.

$Bootcamp: Kiss And Make Up\Sugar And Spikes\Flirting With An Old Flame (Harlequin Signature Select)$
Average customer rating:

Not Enough Bootcamp
three lighthearted fast-paced romps

Bootcamp: Kiss And Make Up\Sugar And Spikes\Flirting With An Old Flame (Harlequin Signature Select)
Leslie Kelly , Heather Macallister , and Cindi Myers
Manufacturer: Harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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$That's Amore!: Meet The Parents\I Do, Don't I?\There Goes The Groom (Signature Select)$ That's Amore!: Meet The Parents\I Do, Don't I?\There Goes The Groom (Signature Select)
When Good Things Happen To Bad Boys
She's Got The Look
Night Whispers
She Drives Me Crazy

ASIN: 0373836880

Book Description

Warfield Bootcamp: A two-week cure for a love life gone AWOL . . .

Trainee #1: Poor Little Heiress
There's no way Cassandra Devane can get her love life to stand at attention. She just keeps dating the wrong guys. Her only chance is to face her enemy -- er, make that ex-husband -- head-on. And she'll get right on that . . . once she's out of his bed.

Trainee #2: The "Iron Lady"
Rebecca Ironwood is a successful businesswoman who's lost touch with men. And everyone else, for that matter. What she needs is just a teeny bit of softening up and some reconnaissance work. And maybe a little extra nudge-nudge with a certain employee . . .

Trainee #3: From Country Bumpkin to Urban Sophisticate
Barbara Powers knows all about image. She's her own best example. But when she returns to her hometown, all she can think about -- and scope out -- is the one guy who didn't want to be fixed.

Customer Reviews:

Not Enough Bootcamp.......2007-03-07

I found this book to be quite predictable. Everyone ends up with the person you know that they are going to. It was pretty boring and I found that I was reading it but not taking it in. All of the stories could be better if they were their own 200 page book instead of 1/3 of that. The title is Bootcamp yet there were probably only 10 pages (at most) that took place at the camp. Overall I didn't like this book and I thought it was pretty predictable and corny.

three lighthearted fast-paced romps .......2006-03-17

Three women attend Warfield Bootcamp on a two-week tour to lean how to deal with relationships since their love life has deserted them.

"Kiss and Make Up" by Leslie Kelly. Heiress Cassandra and her former spouse Wyatt allowed their family to break them apart. Since then Cass has dated losers. She decides that the only way to move on is to do an about face with Wyatt.

"Sugar and Spikes" by Heather MacAllister. Rebecca "Iron Lady" Ironwood has earned her nickname because no one is colder than this armor plated businesswoman. She was fine with that until Cy Benedict entered her life. Now she wonders if she can be a business warrior and a lover too.

"Flirting with an Old Flame" by Cindi Myers. Barbara Powers left Cut and Shoot, Texas to become a successful California CEO. Now she returns home as a sophisticate, but it is local yokel Scott Cadent that makes her want to shed her power suits.

These are three lighthearted fast-paced romps starring strong women needing more in their lives so they become "trainees" in love seeking men who can provide instruction of the heart and accept their beloved are vigorous independent females.

Harriet Klausner

Average customer rating:

I felt like I was there - Impulsive reading. Go on, you won't put it down.

Kiss & Make up
Kevin Leslie
Manufacturer: Grosvenor House Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 190552918X

Book Description

Daniel hasn't seen or spoken to his mother for many years; not since he told her that he was gay. Since then he has had many lovers and almost as many friends but when at the age of 33 he is told that he has only a short time to live, it is to her that he turns. However, when he tries to make contact, fate has a cruel blow to deal him. From the perspective of losing everything that he values, he tries to make sense of the incredible highs and lows of his short life and realises that the love of his mother is very important to him. To see if she loves him too, Daniel asks her to prove it in a very unusual way.

Customer Reviews:

I felt like I was there - Impulsive reading. Go on, you won't put it down........2006-08-16

Gay, public schoolboy discovers that life is not all sequins and light as he moves from experimental boyhood to performing young man. A turbulent relationship with his mother holds you from the first chapter which propells the reader from page to page after realising that he is suffering from an incureable disease. The book encapsulates every emotion from hilarious antics to tears and back again. Follow the hopes and dreams of this exceptional young mans' sexual, professional and emotional exploits culminating in an exeptional twist. Being a 60's boy I instantly connected with the disco, balls (mirror) and drag shows. Great book.

Average customer rating:

Kiss and Make Up
Thomas P. Turner
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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ASIN: 0785749616

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KISS AND MAKE UP (Loveswept, No 678)
Judy Gill
Manufacturer: Loveswept
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0553442635
Release Date: 1994-03-01

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KISS AND MAKE UP (Seniors No 13)
Eileen Goudge
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0440945143
Release Date: 1985-12-01

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Kiss or Make up, a Comedy in three Acts
Jack Sharkey
Manufacturer: Samuel French Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HZJTDW

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Make Up and Kiss
Sam Fuller
Manufacturer: Godwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H50BL6

Kiss-or-miss soiree: No doubt about it--you're a social gal. But, just what is up with this whole make-out party thing? (GL Guys).: An article from: Girls' Life

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Kiss-or-miss soiree: No doubt about it--you're a social gal. But, just what is up with this whole make-out party thing? (GL Guys).: An article from: Girls' Life
Sharon Schatz Rosenthal
Manufacturer: Monarch Avalon, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008EPNBO
Release Date: 2005-07-29

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Girls' Life, published by Monarch Avalon, Inc. on February 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1376 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kiss-or-miss soiree: No doubt about it--you're a social gal. But, just what is up with this whole make-out party thing? (GL Guys).
Author: Sharon Schatz Rosenthal
Publication: Girls' Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2002
Publisher: Monarch Avalon, Inc.
Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Page: 30(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

The story of Michel Thomas reads like a thriller in which adventure and heartbreak combine to produce a unique form of wisdom. Boldly escaping Vienna after the Anschluss, having refused to make accommodations for being Jewish, he arrived stateless in France one week before Kristallnacht. But rather than let this most precarious of positions defeat him, Thomas began to fight what was to become a fantastic and ultimately heroic personal war against the forces of barbarism that engulfed his world.

Arrested by Vichy France, Thomas was starved for two years in a concentration camp at the foot of the Pyrénées and forced into slave labor in a coal mine in Provence. He avoided being sent to Auschwitz by hiding within the confines of a deportation camp for six weeks as its infuriated masters took increasingly dramatic action to capture him at all costs -- and ultimately to no avail. He then joined the secret army of the Resistance and during one mission was captured and interrogated by Klaus Barbie, Butcher of Lyons, whom he barely deceived into releasing him. Re-arrested by the French Milice (Gestapo) and tortured, Thomas held out by entering a psychological state in which he no longer registered pain, and after six and a half hours his defeated tormentors threw him into a cell. He survived and promptly rejoined the fight. After the Allies liberated France, he joined the American forces, fought his way into Germany in active service and was with the troops that liberated Dachau. There he caught, interrogated and obtained the handwritten confession of the head of the camp's crematoria, known as the "Hangman of Dachau."

At the end of the war Thomas became a highly unorthodox and extraordinarily effective Nazi hunter. As an officer with American counterintelligence, but largely as an unprecedented independent force, he masterminded and executed an ingenious scheme to infiltrate and expose underground networks of diehard SS men by posing as a mythical Nazi purportedly hand-chosen by Martin Bormann to organize the rise of a Fourth Reich.

Though his entire family had been slaughtered in Auschwitz, and many close friends killed in combat, at the cessation of hostilities Thomas staged a Reconciliation Concert. Using German musicians, and in direct defiance of strict Allied non-fraternization laws, he brought friend and foe together in a belief that there had to be a different and better future -- and that individuals had the power to make it happen.

Christopher Robbins has dug deep to explore and substantiate the details of the Michel Thomas story. He has authenticated every episode through camp records, Vichy documents, Resistance papers and U.S. Army reports as well as with hundreds of hours of interviews with the man himself. Today, Michel Thomas teaches languages to inner-city kids, movie stars and heads of industry, succeeding in a matter of days even with people who consider themselves hopeless as linguists. To those who have been taught by him, he seems to have a magical gift for unlocking the secret powers of the mind. In Test of Courage we are led through the extraordinary experiences that have shaped the profound insight of this most fascinating and complex man, whose story is one of the most inspirational of the century.

Customer Reviews:

at least Ian Fleming changed his name and admitted it was fiction.......2007-01-10

James Bond was a fictionalized glorified version of Ian Fleming's war career, but it's openly fictitious and admittedly entertaining (if shallow). This book has the fiction and the shallowness, but it reflects really poorly on Michel Thomas as a person. I've three primary objections:
(1) his chauvinism: MT always complains that women outside his family betray him, yet he manipulates them for his own purposes with no second thought (the daughter of the camp commandant for example, must have betrayed him because he refused her offer to rescue him a day before all the prisoners were rounded up, even though he was playing her to help his own survival). This rush to judgment that others have the worst-possible motives also shows in his attitudes towards the Poles, where he claims that Poland had the worst anti-Semitism in Europe (even though his own relations in Lodz were very successful), largely because he didn't think he and his mother were treated well (the worst thing that happened was a cruel joke where neighbors acted like he'd fallen down a well), where not long before the author discusses how his mother had done something socially unacceptable in the period by divorcing twice - so is it anti-Semitism or would a Catholic/Lutheran/etc. woman who divorced twice be treated similarly?
(2) The nonsense about the Gestapo giving up on torturing him after six or seven hours makes a mockery of the many people who had suffered under the regime for much longer.
(3) The claim of entering a psychological state making him incapable of feeling pain when he's being tortured - if this is really possible (and keep in mind neither the CIA and KGB could replicate a such feat), then it also makes a mockery of all the people throughout history who have suffered. It's simply that they didn't have MT's strength of character and mind to overcome their pain. Furthermore, if he did figure something like this out, he should have been visiting cancer or burn wards and teaching that to people instead of teaching languages to celebrities.

Skip this book - I'm disappointed that anyone would participate a biography that portrays him as a egomaniacal self-righteous misogynist (MT apparently participated in the writing of it). The way that it's written calls into question all the other claims that MT has made about his war record.

Improbable but true.......2006-04-03

This book tells an improbable tale which, surprisingly, is entirely true.

The book can be hard to follow chronologically for readers unfamiliar with WWII history, and its style can be a bit hagiographic at times, but the underlying facts of Thomas's life are supported by absolutely solid documentation and statements from Thomas's surviving wartime comrades, who went to bat for him when his bona fides were questioned by an L.A. Times humor columnist after the biography was published.

In 2003, their testimonials were forwarded to the U.S. Army by Arizona Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic New York City Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, along with original military documentation from the National Archives concerning the specific battles in which Thomas participated. The following year the U.S. Army awarded Thomas the Silver Star for his bravery fighting against the Nazis in 1944. In a moving ceremony, Senators Bob Dole and John Warner pinned the medal on Thomas in the shadow of the Atlantic Wall of the newly-dedicated WWII Memorial in Washington, in May 2004. Thomas's family and friends, and several of his wartime comrades stood by, many with tears in their eyes, along with an honor guard of Army Rangers standing at attention. Because Thomas was also a recognized member of the French Resistance, the Ambassador of France, M. Levitte, also attended the ceremony, and saluted Thomas's wartime heroism.

[...]

Take this book with a grain of salt.......2005-10-22

This book is loaded with factual errors [in my opinion]. It makes claims about the World War II feats of Michel Thomas that are completely at odds with military records, newspaper articles from that era and other reliable sources.

Some examples:

1. Author Christopher Robbins claims Thomas was an officer in the U.S. Army. In fact, Thomas was a civilian employee, and the L.A. Times, which debunked much of this book, has National Archives military documents from 1946 bearing Thomas' signature over the words "civilian assistant."

2. In the book, Thomas said he was born in Poland. However, for 38 years, he told journalists he was born in France -- and different parts of France at that.

3. Robbins claims Thomas was with the first battalion of U.S. troops as it entered the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945. After the L.A. Times proved otherwise, Thomas tried to backtrack, claiming he never said he was with the battalion, only that he arrived at Dachau sometime the first day. There are two problems with this explanation. First, the introduction to "Test of Courage" states that Thomas verified every fact in the book. Second, Thomas had been claiming he was with the first troops in newspaper articles dating back to the 1950s.

4. The book says Thomas single-handedly discovered and rescued millions of Nazi Party ID cards from destruction at a paper mill near Munich in May 1945. But this version of events is flatly contradicted by October 1945 articles in the New York Times and London Express.

5. Robbins also claims Thomas escaped Gestapo butcher Klaus Barbie. But in 1983, the U.S. Justice Department's chief Nazi hunter called a press conference to denounce Thomas' Klaus Barbie stories. And when Thomas testified at Barbie's 1987 trial, the prosecutor asked the jury to disregard Thomas' testimony, saying it wasn't made in good faith.

Although the book purports to be thoroughly documented, the "evidence" [in my opinion] in it didn't hold up, as several media reports have demonstrated.

The Michel Thomas Biography.......2004-08-07

Being an avid fan of Michel's language teaching methods I was very very disappointed in "The Michel Thomas Story". Whilst Michel's early life and times made very sad reading, I felt that Christopher Robbins book, whilst good in many respects, did not really give an insight into Michel's personality or post-war life. It focused almost entirely on World War 2 and the problems that it bequeathed to Michel.

For instance, Michel leaves Europe after WW2 and pops up in the USA but there is scant mention on how he made a living sufficient to finance and start up his language schools and the book practically ignores his contacts with many well-known people in Hollywood etc. His personal life must have had many more interesting threads than the writer of this biography has chosen to develop.

If Michel himself were to write a biography I am sure that I would then feel that I knew the man behind the name and there is clearly much more of interest to develop in another book.

Every success to Michel - his language teaching methods are simply magic and certainly work, even on me, a non-linguist!

A Preposterous Book.......2004-05-27

Recently, John Carroll, editor of the Los Angeles Times, made some comments about this book at a symposion at UC Berkeley that in a nutshell give you all the reasons you need not to read this book. He stated:

"We published a story awhile back, by a very clever reporter named Roy Rivenburg, about a man who published his autobiography. And, if you read the autobiography, you'd be amazed you'd never heard of this man, because he pretty much single-handed won World War II for us. It was a preposterous book, and our review of it was an investigative review. It debunked many of the claims in this book and had some fun doing it, had a few laughs at the author's expense. When you put yourself out in public and make claims that are preposterous, and publish a book on it, you're likely to get a reviewer who will look into that and set the record straight. I'm very proud of that story, we haven't retracted a word of it, we don't intend to because it was true."

This book is actually a biography (not autobiography) of Michel Thomas by a British writer named Christopoher Robbins. The book is well-written and reads like a thriller, but thanks to some fine investigative reporting by the LA Times we now know that many of the "heroic" exploits of Thomas' life may be more fiction than fact.

Average customer rating:
TEST OF COURAGE: THE MICHEL THOMAS STORY
Christopher Robbins
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J3HFGA

Average customer rating:
Test of Courage : The Michel Thomas Story: One Man's Heroic WWII Journey from Survival to Triumph
Christopher Robbins
Manufacturer: Free Press, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WL1MF4

Average customer rating:
Test of Courage : The Michel Thomas Story: One Man's Heroic WWII Journey from Survival to Triumph

Manufacturer: Free Press, The, New York, NY, U.S.A.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I8SJQQ

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