#BlogTour-‘My Judy Garland Life’ by Susie Boyt

About the book…

An irresistible mixture of memoir, biography, cultural analysis, experiment and hero-worship about one person’s enduring fascination. This is for anyone who has ever nursed an obsession or held a candle to a star.

Judy Garland has been an important figure in Susie Boyt’s world since she was three years old; comforting, inspiring and, at times, disturbing her.  In this unique book Boyt travels deep into the underworld of hero-worship, reviewing through the prism of Judy our understanding of rescue, consolation, love, grief and fame.

Layering key episodes from Garland’s life with defining moments from her own, Boyt demands with insight and humour, what it means, exactly, to adore someone you don’t know. Need hero worship be a pursuit that’s low in status or can it be performed with pride and style? Are there similarities that lie at the heart of all fans?

And what is the proper husbandry of a twenty first century obsession, anyway?

‘My Judy Garland Life’ is being re-released by Virago to coincide with the new, Renee Zellweger movie adaptation, so I am absolutely thrilled to be reviewing it as a part of an Anne Cater,Random Things blog tour!

Everyone knows of Judy Garland. Or at last, they think they did. Cultural icon, larger than life Hollywood Royalty,gay figurehead and the singer of one of the most memorable songs of all time.

But who was she?

Underneath the sparkly glitter lies a normal pair of shoes and this is what Susie Boyt exposes-the girl and then the woman behind the myth whilst not ever ruining or maligning the mystique.

It is actually quite an amazing feat to accomplish, simultaneously pulling back the curtain to reveal the real Wizard yet making the reader love her even more. This is truly a wonderful book and the parrallel tale of the author whilst writing the autobiography of Judy works so well as the story dovetails across the years, beginning with how this remarkable actress has shone a light into the darkest corners of Susie’s life.

The hero worship of celebrity is dealt with carefully, for this is a real person who is so iconic that bringing a fresh perspective to Judy’s tale makes us fall in love with her as Susie herself does. The grief and losses in their lives as well as the coping mechanisms and strategies used to move forward are heartbreakingly real.

How and why we venerate those who give us comfort in their appearances on stage and screen is as important as accurately portraying the facts of a life cut tragically short. It is not so much living vicariously through others or using the fictional world as a crutch, it is so much more than that. Rather, in attempting to rationalise her fascination with a figure so strongly embedded in the public conscience, Susie has created something unique, special and unforgettable, Rather like Judy herself.

About the author…

The daughter of Suzy Boyt and artist Lucian Freud, and great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. Susie Boyt was educated at Channing and at Camden School for Girls and read English at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, graduating in 1992. Working variously at a PR agency, and a literary agency, she completed her first novel, ‘The Normal Man’, which was published in 1995 by Weidenfeld and Nicholson. She returned to university to do a Masters in Anglo American Literary Relations at University College London studying the works of Henry James and the poet John Berryman.

To date she has published four novels. In 2008, she published ‘My Judy Garland Life’, a layering of biography, hero-worship and self-help. Her journalism includes an ongoing column in the weekend Life & Arts section of the Financial Times. She is married to Tom Astor, a film producer. They live with their two daughters in London

Links-http://www.susieboyt.com/index.asp

Twiter @SusieBoyt

          @ViragoBooks

          @annecater