Rewrites A Memoir, Neil Simon
Rewrites A Memoir, Neil Simon
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Rewrites A Memoir

Author: Neil Simon

Narrator: Neil Simon

Abridged: 4 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/1996


Synopsis

Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys -- Neil Simon's plays and movies have kept many millions of people laughing for almost four decades. Today he is recognized not only as the most successful American playwright of all time, but also as one of the greatest.

More than the humor, however, it is the humanity of Neil Simon's vision that has made him America's most beloved playwright and earned him such enduring success. Now, in Rewrites, he has written a funny, deeply touching memoir, filled with details and anecdotes of the writing life and rich with the personal experiences that underlie his work. What the listener of this warm, nostalgic memoir discovers, however, is that the plays, although grounded in Neil Simon's own experience, provide only a glimpse into the mind and soul of this very private man.

Since Come Blow Your Horn first opened on Broadway in 1960, few seasons have passed without the appearance of another of his laughter-filled plays, and indeed on numerous occasions two or more of his works have been running simultaneously. But his success was something Neil Simon never took for granted, nor was the talent to create laughter something that he ever treated carelessly: it took too long for him to achieve the kind of acceptance -- both popular and critical -- that he craved, and the path he followed frequently was pitted with hard decisions.

Some of the supporting players in the memoir include Sid Caesar, Jerry Lewis, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, George C. Scott, and Mike Nichols. But always at center stage is his first love, his wife Joan, whose death in the early seventies devastated him, and whose love and inspiration illuminate this remarkable and revealing self-portrait.

Rewrites is rich in laughter and emotion, and filled with the memories of a sometimes sweet, sometimes bittersweet life.

About Neil Simon

Neil Simon is the writer of more than forty Broadway plays, including Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners, and Lost in Yonkers, which won the Pulitzer Prize.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on September 02, 2018

An invaluable - and often illuminating - read for those who have done theater or have written plays. (I've done both.) A number of times throughout this first volume of memoirs, Simon tells and reminds us that he is someone who has always been most comfortable with and on paper - more than anyplace......more

Goodreads review by Bruce on September 05, 2010

I've been reading lots of Neil Simon this summer. This may well prove to be one of your lighter four-star reviews out there. Neither much in the way of gravitas or backstage gossip involved, Rewrites is your basic angel-food cake of an "and then I wrote" autobiography. That said, fresh angel food ca......more

Goodreads review by Kara on February 23, 2013

It's true that this book is quite good. I enjoyed it. I thought it was funny. Originally, I had picked it up because I thought I would learn something from it. There wasn't much to learn, except for a few things. Mostly that art imitates life and life imitates art. And I can understand why he had to......more

Goodreads review by Mediaman on February 14, 2023

If less than one-third of a book is worth reading, what kind of rating would you give it? I'm giving it two-stars, considering that it's coming from one of the greatest theatrical writers of all time. Neil Simon has basically two good sections in a long, dull, meandering book that includes more abou......more

Goodreads review by Linden on July 15, 2015

While a memoir offers a behind-the-scenes look at someone's life, many writers find it difficult to resist the soapbox of explanations or reputation tidying. But not Simon. Perhaps his self-identified insecurity about success has kept him honest as well as wryly funny. Most remarkable for me was to hear......more