My copy of "Infancy of the Myth"
The book is paperback and clocks in at 255 pages although Amazon lists the book in error at 294 pages. It has many color photographs of vintage structures in Castellaneta, including churches and street-ways and of course Valentino's noted birth home. To me the photographs were the best part of the book.
The book is being marketed as a straight forward biography of Rudolph Valentino's first nine years of life. On Amazon the publisher has tried to sweeten the deal by describing it as a "scholarly study" and says it is a "stunning, accurate narrative". No, sadly, it is not even close to that wishful description the publisher, Viale Industria Publication put on Amazon.
If the book had been marketed as "historical fiction" I would award the author ***** five stars on Amazon. However as a "scholarly study" it comes up with * star.
Why? Fictional dialogue. A whopping 90% of the book is fictional dialogue.
This is an example where the author completely invents dialogue, actions, glances, touching.
Here the author tells the reader what Alberto and Rodolfo were thinking, as well as what their fathers actions were. All fabricated.
Here the author tells us what Rodolfo was thinking and felt; pain, humiliation and anger. All fabricated.
Here the author fabricates an entire interaction with the local priest along with back and forth fictional dialogue. All untrue.
The author has provided no citations as to where he is pulling the dialogue from, and therefore there is no way for him to know from 1895 to 1904 as to what Valentino's mother, father, brother, priest was thinking, or saying. Yet he tells us page after page of what they were thinking, he quotes them in casual dialogue.
The premise of the book is true; Castellaneta is the real town where Valentino was born and yes his father, Giovanni, his mother Gabrielle, his brother Alberto all were real people. The author in his introduction said his aim of the book was to outline the real events. This he accomplished, but just reader be wary - everything outside of that framework has been created out of thin air. It reads like historical fiction and if that is fine by you, then by all means add this book to your library. Just know that it is not a "scholarly study" nor is it a "stunning, accurate narrative" as the publisher has described.
First things first. In her last poo-cast, The Madwoman of Turin claimed that she had received a fan letter. This set the alarm bells ringing. Each time she or Mr. Mumbles receives a communication or sells a book, it’s such a rare and momentous occasion that they tweet it for their world-of-six to see. Further investigation, however, has proved that this was NO fan letter, but an article by Thomas Mallon, published in “The New Yorker” on 19 May 2003 under the heading, “The Lives of Rudolph Valentino”. Yep, our “scholarly” author lifted several phrases, verbatim, from the highly-esteemed Mr. Mallon, and tried to fool us into believing they had been sent to her in an email by a fan! Read what he had to say, then listen to her poo-cast and…Bingo, Mrs. Ducket, your mother’s won a bucket!
ReplyDeleteNext to the "biography" by "the professor", which is unbelievably tacky even by VIP Libri standards. The Madwoman of Turin is the first to attack anyone else for writing "fan fiction", yet anyone who dares criticise anything that she or Mr. Mumbles is involved with, and there are screeches of "defamation". They have screamed and mumbled every insult known to Man from the rooftops, where my boks are concerned, while hers are applauded as "beautiful" and "scholarly". I guess even bullfrogs and warthogs find each other beautiful, and Quasimodo may have regarded himself as scholarly when he shouted "The bells, the bells!" But I ask you, literature's answer to Florrie Foster Jenkins, which of us is the most successful and respected? You, with your half dozen Mills & Boons rejects which would not be fit to be used as toilet paper...or me, with 49 titles, one for each book you have sold? The reading public, the press and the critics are never wrong, which is why you are persistently ignored. So, you're going to publish yet another $50 "masterpiece"? And you're going to continue with your poo-casts, so long as Mr. Mumbles' voice holds out and you don't melt the wax in his ears with your endless screeching? Good luck to. You need all the luck you can get because you sure as hell have zero talent, and even less respect. Why don't you stop being lily-livered and allow people to leave comments after your crap? I'll tell you why. It's because YOU, who are forever preaching about the truth, are terrified of hearing what people really think of you. You are NOT respected by the Valentino community or any other. You are LOATHED, more than all the dictators in history rolled into one. So, stick THAT in your vintage cigarette and smoke it. Whatever tricks you try, whatever lies and tall-tales you spin, no one is ever going to believe a word you say.
The author of "Affairs Valentino" was fond of boasting the fact that her first publisher had mental health issues (her words, not mine). Mr. Caruso was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. My son is disabled, with learning difficulties. She, who persistently pulls out the "elderly" card and screams "bully" at every given opportunity, is only too fond of bullying people who are at a disadvantage to the rest of us. This is why she and her equally prejudiced spouse will never have so much as a smidgeon of success as long as they live. I would also like to remind her of her overt use of the word "defame". To defame someone means that they have to have fame in the first place. Whatever fame and success this bullying, heartless pair never had, they still haven't got and never will have. Absolutely no one is immune from being stabbed in the back, where they are concerned.
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