A review by hpuphd
Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd

4.0

I have read and appreciated at least six books by Peter Ackroyd. He writes with care and precision and excels at finding the revealing detail or quote and in attaching a convincing interpretation to it. Many of the unfavorable reviews here refer to Chaplin’s seemingly detestable personality and question Ackroyd’s sympathy toward his subject. But the author shows considerable respect for Chaplin the artist (if less for the unhappy, self-absorbed man). Reading biography only to find role models is like complaining at an unhappy ending in a novel. Reading should take in more. The writing in this book is something to savor. The insights about the movies are rewarding. And Ackroyd mentions Chaplin’s “friends” often enough to make one wonder if the slights about Charlie himself might be overdone, though it remains clear that the crushing poverty of Chaplin’s boyhood and the immense wealth and fame of his youth created something of a monster.