This could have been such an interesting period piece and character study, but sadly, it was drudgery.

This book was honestly just not for me. I was hoping it would draw me in but I never really connected with it. This might be a fantastic book but again, not every book is meant for every person.

Stan Laurel may have had an interesting life, but I’ll never know because I couldn’t get through the writing style of this book. I didn’t like the short, choppy sentences and the short chapters (over 200 of them). There is also an irritating writing tic of repeating the full name of a character over and over. “Under the guidance of Hal Roach, Harold Lloyd begins to learn and develop. No longer content to imitate Chaplin, Harold Lloyd experiments with a new character. Harold Lloyd finds a pair of dark-framed glasses. Harold Lloyd picks up a boater. Aided by Hal Roche, Harold Lloyd becomes a star.” I found the whole thing pretentious and off-putting. Abandoned after reading 25%.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The author has written a novel of the life and work of Stan Laurel. The novel goes from vaudeville to the “talkies.” The novel includes his work with Oliver Hardy also known as the “Babe.” The story shows how his private life was different from “real” life. It’s an interesting book to read.

I love tales of the golden age of Hollywood, so I was really looking forward to reading this book. Retelling the life of Stan Laurel and his rise to stardom with his comedic partner, Oliver Hardy, this title had great potential. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get past the writing style. I am a big reader of biographical and historical fiction so I felt this book would be right up my alley, but I was disappointed. There were very few details given throughout. Many of the characters in the book are well known and I could imagine them in the story, but other characters I had not heard of and there were very few descriptions given so I had a very hard time picturing these characters and immersing myself in the story. I found the writing style to be very disjointed and almost staccato in nature. Perhaps this was the author's intent, but I found it very off putting and made the book difficult for me to read. Unusual punctuation is used throughout, for example, no quotation marks are used in dialogue, again making the narrative difficult to read. The author also uses character names repeatedly in the same paragraph. If the author is making reference to Charlie Chaplin, his full name is used five or six times. I very rarely give up on books, but after getting about one-third of the way through this novel, I just couldn't finish it. It was not enjoyable to read, the lack of details, the repetitive nature of the narrative, and lack of normal punctuation made this a 1 out of 5 stars for me.