Leonard
My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man
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4.0 • 65 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
New York Times Bestseller
Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner first crossed paths as actors on the set of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Little did they know that their next roles as Spock and Captain Kirk, in a new science fiction television series, would shape their lives in ways no one could have anticipated. In seventy-nine television episodes of Star Trek and six feature films, they grew to know each other more than most friends could ever imagine.
Over the course of half a century, Shatner and Nimoy saw each other through personal and professional highs and lows. In this powerfully emotional book, Shatner tells the story of a man who was his friend for five decades, recounting anecdotes and untold stories of their lives on and off set, as well as gathering stories from others who knew Nimoy well, to present a full picture of a rich life.
As much a biography of Nimoy as a story of their friendship, Leonard is a uniquely heartfelt book written by one legendary actor in celebration of another.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shatner and Leonard Nimoy shared an off-screen relationship as deep, complex, and sometimes testy as their Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock, according to this fond elegy. Shatner is warmly effusive, calling Nimoy his only "real friend to whom I could completely emotionally unburden myself," but there were rough patches: relations on the original Star Trek television series were marked by a rivalry that exploded into tantrums; friendship blossomed while they basked in adulation at Star Trek conventions, and when Nimoy, a recovering alcoholic, helped Shatner cope with his alcoholic wife's death. The friendship sputtered in its last years after a never-explained rift made Nimoy cut off contact. (Shatner's anguish over the rupture is palpable.) Nimoy is an interesting if aloof presence here; the most insightful chapters deal with the meticulous Method technique he used to craft the cerebral, soulfully alienated, nerve-pinching Vulcan, which played brilliantly against Shatner's intuitive, external, fist-fighting embodiment of Kirk. The book is also a fine portrait of the prosaic, unsentimental worldview of workaday actors. (Both men were astonished by the emotional fervor Trekkies including Martin Luther King Jr. invested in the show.) Amanuensis Fisher's engaging prose and Shatner's shrewd reflections and good humor make this a resonant retrospective of one of pop culture's great partnerships. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Fun
Light read
Dreadful book
What an incredible waste of my precious reading time. This book needed a ruthless editor, but even more it needed a writer who had a clue about sequence, chronology, and was more interested in his subject than himself.
Not up to snuff
I've enjoyed Shatner's previous work with collaborators but something went wrong this time around. His usual "voice" and bantering humor are absent. It's monotone, bland, and dry. Awkwardly written phrases and even errors further blemished what should have a personally insightful book.
Was Shatner not "up" to the task? Did they select an ineffective collaborator? Did the publisher not edit the book? What happened?!
Nimoy deserved better than this.