Robin, Dave Itzkoff
Robin, Dave Itzkoff
82 Rating(s)
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

Robin

Bestseller

Author: Dave Itzkoff

Narrator: Dave Itzkoff, Fred Berman

Unabridged: 16 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/15/2018


Synopsis

This program includes a prologue and epilogue read by the author.

From New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff, comes the definitive audiobook biography of Robin Williams – a compelling portrait of one of America’s most beloved and misunderstood entertainers.

From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative and beloved entertainer. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture and politics while mixing in personal revelations – all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another with lightning speed.

But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams’s comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt, which he drew upon in his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, where he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation to bring to life a wide range of characters. And in Good Will Hunting he gave an intense and controlled performance that revealed the true range of his talent.

Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression – topics he discussed openly while performing and during interviews – and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a man whose work touched so many lives.

About Dave Itzkoff

Dave Itzkoff is the author of Mad as Hell, Cocaine’s Son, and Lads. He is a culture reporter at The New York Times, where he writes regularly about film, television, theater, music, and popular culture. He previously worked at Spin, Maxim, and Details, and his work has appeared in GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

About Fred Berman

Fred Berman is a five-time winner of the AudioFile Earphone Award for Audiobook Narration and the recipient of the 2013 Audie Award for narration in Spy the Lie. He has read a number of audiobooks for young listeners, including Judy Blume’s Soupy Saturdays with The Pain & The Great One and Andrew Clements’s The Last Holiday Concert. He has also narrated the audiobooks for Robert Kirkman’s popular series, The Walking Dead.Berman is an accomplished actor of both the stage and screen as well, performing on Broadway as Timon in The Lion King and off-Broadway in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and King Lear. On television, Berman has had roles on NBC’s hit series Smash as well as All My Children and Law and Order. He lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on May 17, 2018

4 stars to Robin, a thorough and well-written biography of the life of one-of-a-kind Robin Williams! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ This book came highly recommended by my friend, Toni. I’m so grateful I read it. My earliest memory of Robin Williams includes my mom’s hysterical laughter mixed with my own, while watchi......more

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on May 14, 2018

I still remember how stunned I was when I heard that Robin Williams had died, and then even more shocked when it came out that he had likely died by hanging himself with a belt. It just seemed such a wretched ending for the beloved comedian who’d brought such a wonderful humor into our lives. It bro......more

Goodreads review by Karen on March 17, 2025

After Robin Williams passed away, I realized that one of the reasons I felt so deeply about this loss was because in many ways, I grew up with Robin Williams. I was just 20 when Robin burst onto the scene in that iconic episode of ‘Happy Days’ which led to ‘Mork & Mindy’. I loved that show and found......more

Goodreads review by Katie on August 25, 2019

Every couple of months or so I think about Robin Williams and how he is no longer with us, and I just feel so sad. While he certainly made me laugh over the years and I thought he was a wonderful comedic and dramatic actor, I don't think I fully appreciated how absolutely brilliant he was until he w......more

Goodreads review by Martie on March 27, 2025

Genre: Biography Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Pub. Date: May 15, 2018 The author, Dave Itzkoff, is a culture reporter who writes about film, television, and comedy for The New York Times. Itzkoff writes this book as a combination of straight reporting and insightful analysis. This is a bittersweet b......more


Quotes

"The book draws from [Dave] Itzkoff’s interviews with Williams for The New York Times as well as his talks with relatives, friends and fellow comics...to create a vivid portrait of a man whose successes never seemed to loom as large in his mind as his insecurities. In this Itzkoff is aided beyond measure by Berman, an Audie-winning narrator who captures Williams’ rat-a-tat style of speech and makes you feel that when he reads the quotes, it might almost be Robin talking." -Providence Journal

"[T]otally engrossing biography of Robin Williams." -Booklist


Awards

  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
  • Barnes and Noble Best New Books of the Year
  • Amazon.com Best Books of the Year