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All or Nothing at All: A Life of Frank Sinatra

Average customer rating:

Get your heads out of the sand
Thoroughly Worthless Book
An Excellent and Opinionated Book
Amateurish trifle
A third-rate book written by a second-rate writer

All or Nothing at All: A Life of Frank Sinatra
Donald Clarke
Manufacturer: Fromm Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Why Sinatra Matters

ASIN: 0880641819

Book Description

Among the recent books about frank sinatra, many critics picked this as the best-now in paperback.

Customer Reviews:

Get your heads out of the sand.......2006-02-16

To all those reviewers who didn't like Donald Clarke's five-star book, get your heads out of the sand, or wherever else they are. All or Nothing at All is outstanding on America, politics, gangsters, Sinatra, his music, his family, his friends, enemies, and more.

I'm rereading it now. It is marvelous!

Thoroughly Worthless Book.......2005-08-13

One thing I'm happy about is that I didn't pay full price. What a waste of paper and cardboard. There's nothing new in this book, nothing you couldn't find elsewhere. It's actually written in the first person, believe it or not, as evidenced by the not so infrequent "I never liked such and such" or "I found it to be." After a while, who cares? And evidently, the author didn't rate either a first rate editor or a fact checker. For example, there's no "e" after the "g" in judgment. He does this repeatedly. Moreover, for someone allegedly so well-versed in the entertainment industry, he's apparently rather ignorant of some basic knowledge. When discussing Reagan's inaugural parties planned by Sinatra, Clarke mentions "someone named Ben Vereen who performed in blackface", and then trashes Sinatra's "judgement" in arranging such entertainment. Uh, Mr. Clarke, Ben Vereen WAS black, he couldn't help BUT be in blackface!

An Excellent and Opinionated Book.......2005-08-06

Frank Sinatra was always a puzzle -- he sang like an angel, behaved like a jerk, and yet was apparently an extremely generous individual who kept his many charities secret.

Donald Clarke sits with all the contradictions of Sinatra, both musical and personal, without attempting to simplify them. The reviewer below who complained that the book is like an extended essay is right. Clarke does not attempt, in this relatively slim volume, to write the definitive biographical work. It is instead a shrewd, opinionated, and often funny review of the man and his music.

I'm not a FS fanatic, but I do own about 40 or 50 of his albums, which I guess makes me more than a casual fan. I almost always agreed with Clarke's musical judgements (although I think rather more of "Live at the Sands" than he does) and found a lot of value in the way he attempts to separate Sinatra's own bloviations from the facts (e.g. was Mitch Miller really responsible for how bad much of Sinatra's mid-50s work is? Not really, says Clarke, and gives reasons for this opinion).

This book is not a replacement for a full-length biography -- if you want the details on who slapped who first in every fight he had with Ava Gardner, you'll have to go elsewhere. It's also not a replacement for an annotated discography, although it made me hungry for one -- I thought I had a pretty good handle on Sinatra's recorded output, and Clarke made me realize there's a lot I don't know.

As for Clarke's writing style, I say "bravo." Judging by the impish grin he's wearing in the jacket photo, I'd say he's well aware of how provocative some of his comments are, but there's nothing arrogant about this book. Clarke has his opinions, and states them very strongly, but it's clear the reader is welcome to his or her own. If you're the sort of reader who is secure enough to enjoy strongly held and amusingly stated beliefs rather than be upset by them, I recommend this book most highly.

Amateurish trifle.......1999-10-21

Mr. Clarke's "book" is really more of an extended ( and poorly written ) magazine essay. However, I'm not sure what magazine would publish it ( surely not the NEW YORKER or DOWN BEAT ). Clarke never sheds any light on Sinatra's upbringing, personality or musicianship. Not for a moment do you feel either the man or his music come to life. There are literally dozens of examples of his amateurish writing; in one amazingly idiotic passage ( page 132, 3rd paragraph ) he states that the title of Sinatra's famous album "SONGS FOR SWINGIN' LOVERS" has become "mildly irritating" (!). He goes on a moment later to ask whether "swinging" was a euphemism for suburban wife swapping (!!). No one should shell out $$ for this type of drivel. By the way, Mr. Clarke, if you're amusing yourself by reading this review in between writing your "books"; I DIDN'T buy it ( thank God I merely checked it out of the library! ). To concur with some of the other reviewers: regarding the music, try Will Friedwald's "THE SONG IS YOU; A SINGER'S ART" or Charles Granata's upcoming "SESSIONS WITH SINATRA". For an extremely well-balanced, thorough account of Mr. Sinatra's life, try Randy Taraborelli's "SINATRA: A COMPLETE LIFE". For a short but poignant essay, try Pete Hamill's "WHY SINATRA MATTERS". For a famous account of Sinatra c.1966, try Gay Talese's essay entitled "FRANK SINATRA HAS A COLD" ( available in the FRANK SINATRA READER ). Other short but informative passages on Sinatra have been written by Shirley MacLaine and Mia Farrow ( I forget the exact titles of their books ). As far as Clarke's volume is concerned, it only ranks slightly above Kitty Kelley's stinker; in other words, it deserves a spot deep in the bowels of Dante's inferno.

A third-rate book written by a second-rate writer.......1999-08-19

You get the feeling reading this book that Donald Clarke sees himself as a far more noble and heroic character than some mere mortal like Frank Sinatra. Clarke has taken self-righteousness and developed it into something approaching an art form. A waste of time, a waste of money, a waste of paper, glue, ink, and whatever else was needed to print this "biography". By the way, give the word "biography" the loosest interpretation possible. Donald Clarke has even less of a clue as to what the word "biograpy" means and his book is the best evidence to support my thesis.

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