Synopses & Reviews
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year
The first biography of The New Yorker's influential, powerful, and controversial film critic.
A decade after her death, Pauline Kael remains the most important figure in film criticism today, in part due to her own inimitable style and power within the film community and in part due to the enormous influence she has exerted over an entire subsequent generation of film critics. During her tenure at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1991 she was a tastemaker, a career maker, and a career breaker. Her brash, vernacular writing style often made for an odd fit at the stately New Yorker.
Brian Kellow gives us a richly detailed look at one of the most astonishing bursts of creativity in film history and a rounded portrait of this remarkable (and often relentlessly driven) woman. Pauline Kael is a book that will be welcomed by the same audience that made Mark Harris's Pictures at a Revolution and Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls bestsellers, and by anyone who is curious about the power of criticism in the arts.
Review
"Illuminating."
-The New Yorker
"Kellow captures his tough leading lady's many twists in a surprisingly engrossing, thoroughly researched biography."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Kellow, an erudite movie lover...writes beautifully and dexterously interweaves the story of a career long-thwarted with a sensitive reading o his subject's youthful enthusiasm and intellectual growth."
-Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter
"Kael was a master at interpretation, and this book is a highly successful interpretation of the storied critic....A must-read for any devotee of film; compellingly written and recommended for all libraries."
-Library Journal (Starred Review)
"In his fluent, immensely readable study, Kellow fairly represents Kael's tendency to hyperbole (writing of Barbra Streisand or Last Tango in Paris) as well as hurtful ad hominem (George Cukor's Rich and Famous; Shoah)."
-Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Kellow performs biographical magic, telling her story mostly through her most famous (and notorious) reviews of some of the landmark films of the '60s and '70s."
-Kirkus (Starred Review)
"For a biography to do justice to a complex personality and a great mind such as Kael's, extensive research must be matched by acute perception. That requirement is fully, even joyously, met here....Kellow fleshes out these major stages as well as formative minor ones in a greatly revelatory portrait that will stand as the definitive one."
-Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Kael was a master at interpretation, and [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] is a highly successful interpretation of the storied critic....A must-read for any devotee of film; compellingly written and recommended for all libraries."
Review
"Kellow performs biographical magic, telling her story mostly through [Kael's] most famous (and notorious) reviews of some of the landmark films of the '60s and '70s."
Review
"For a biography to do justice to a complex personality and a great mind such as Kaeland#8217;s, extensive research must be matched by acute perception. That requirement is fully, even joyously, met here."
and#160;
Review
"Kellow captures his tough leading lady's many twists in a surprisingly engrossing, thoroughly researched biography."
Review
"Illuminating." -The New Yorker
Review
"Kellow, an erudite movie lover...writes beautifully and dexterously interweaves the story of a career long-thwarted with a sensitive reading o his subject's youthful enthusiasm and intellectual growth."
Review
“In his fluent, immensely readable study, Kellow fairly represents Kael’s tendency to hyperbole (writing of Barbra Streisand or
Last Tango in Paris) as well as hurtful ad hominem (George Cukor’s
Rich and Famous;
Shoah).”
Review
“Illuminating.”
— The New Yorker (Reviewers' favorites, 2011)
“[A] smart and incisive biography…. [Moviegoers] are in for a colossal eye-opening. [Kael's] love for film has no present-day counterpart…. Mr. Kellow’s clear, independent view of his subject is his book’s most valuable surprise….Kael liked to disparage what she called ‘saphead objectivity.’ Bur Mr. Kellow is no saphead, and he makes objectivity a great virtue."
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
Editor's and Critic's Pick for 2011
— Ben Brandtley, The New York Times
"Mr. Kellow’s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.”
— Scott Eyman, The Wall Street Journal
“This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.”
— The Wall Street Journal (Recommended Gift 2011)
“To appreciate Kael’s trailblazing, you have to see it in its broader context. Luckily, that backdrop is filled in with surefooted sophistication by Brian Kellow in Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a fair-minded and deeply reported Kael biography.”
— Frank Rich, The New York Times Book Review
“In his fluent, immensely readable study, Kellow fairly represents Kael’s tendency to hyperbole (writing of Barbra Streisand or Last Tango in Paris) as well as hurtful ad hominem (George Cukor’s Rich and Famous; Shoah).”
— Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Kael was a master at interpretation, and [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] is a highly successful interpretation of the storied critic....A must-read for any devotee of film; compellingly written and recommended for all libraries."
— Library Journal (Starred Review)
"For a biography to do justice to a complex personality and a great mind such as Kael's, extensive research must be matched by acute perception. That requirement is fully, even joyously, met here....Kellow fleshes out these major stages as well as formative minor ones in a greatly revelatory portrait that will stand as the definitive one."
— Booklist (Starred Review)
"Kellow performs biographical magic, telling her story mostly through [Kael's] most famous (and notorious) reviews of some of the landmark films of the '60s and '70s."
— Kirkus
Review
“[Pauline Kael] got into my bloodstream more than any other critic. So I have been waiting most of my life for a smart, insightful biography like [
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] to take me beyond and beneath the hypnotic thrill of her prose.”
Review
“Yet Kael often reveled in movies she thought were a mess, just as anyone who reads Brian Kellow’s incisive, detailed biography of America’s most impassioned and influential movie critic,
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, is sure to be absorbed, sucked in, by Kael’s cluttered hodge-podge of a life—personally, professionally, emotionally, aesthetically….There is so much packed into Kellow’s rich book…that her life story seems an epic script.”
American Spectator
Review
“Perhaps the most valuable thing about Brian Kellow’s fine new book about [Pauline] Kael,
A Life in the Dark, is that, aside from its virtues as a sympathetic, clear-eyed and sharp biography, is that it’s a really fine cultural and social document of a turning point in movie history.”
Review
“Brian Kellow’s biography
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark wisely charts Kael’s life by focusing on her writing.”
Review
“[An] excellent new biography.”
Sense of Cinema
Review
“Illuminating.”
— The New Yorker (Reviewers' favorites)
“[A] smart and incisive biography…. [Moviegoers] are in for a colossal eye-opening. [Kael's] love for film has no present-day counterpart…. Mr. Kellow’s clear, independent view of his subject is his book’s most valuable surprise….Kael liked to disparage what she called ‘saphead objectivity.’ Bur Mr. Kellow is no saphead, and he makes objectivity a great virtue."
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
"Mr. Kellow’s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.”
— Scott Eyman, The Wall Street Journal
“This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.”
— The Wall Street Journal (Recommended Gift)
“To appreciate Kael’s trailblazing, you have to see it in its broader context. Luckily, that backdrop is filled in with surefooted sophistication by Brian Kellow in Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a fair-minded and deeply reported Kael biography.”
— Frank Rich, The New York Times Book Review
“I fell on Kellow’s book like a teenage girl on a lost volume of the Twilight saga and found it quite as riveting as teens find anything to do with Bella.”
— Mary Pols, San Francisco Chronicle
“A smart and eminently readable examination of the life and career of one of the 20th century’s most influential movie critics.”
— Los Angeles Times.com
“[Kellow] brings a wise and sweeping vision to [Kael's] artistic mentality and her enduring legacy.”
— The Washington Times
“[M]eticulously researched.”
— Slate.com
“[A] terrific new biography… [Kael's early life ] was a revelation to me, thanks to Kellow’s ace research.”
— Salon.com
“Fun, fair, and fluently written, [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] is an edifying read.”
— The Dallas Morning News
“Mr. Kellow throws a great deal of light on the famous critic’s heretofore mysterious ways.”
— The Portland Mercury
“In Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, author Brian Kellow offers a making-of story as engaging as her criticism. It’s not easy feat—what’s less dramatic than scribbling into the night?—but Kellow tapped [Kael's] friends and foes and her writing while developing a colorful, even handed appreciation of one of film’s most influential critics….[An] eye-opening biography.”
— Associated Press
“The fact that most of us know little about [Kael's ] upbringing of her private life makes this an especially intriguing biography.”
— Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin.com
“Compelling…thrillingly written and exhaustively researched….Genius.”
— The Playlist
“Kellow evocatively captures the blooming of film culture in the early 1960s, and the sobriety with which Kael took over the critical pulpit….Kellow not only grasps the significance of his subject, but invokes the pace and energy of [Kael's] singular style….good, dishy fun.”
— The Village Voice
"Kellow has reconstructed Kael's 'life in the dark'....The result is a joy to read....[I]t's a fascinating book."
— Los Angeles Magazine (Critic's Picks, November 2011 Issue)
“[E]xhaustively researched, beautifully written….Kellow has told [Kael's] life in incredible detail….I found [Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark] enthralling because it vividly recreates a world I was part of, which seems now very distant. It is also because Kellow has been generous in quoting [Kael's] sensuous, percussive, often wise prose….Pauline was a galvanizing presence, and Kellow has brought her back with overwhelming intensity.”
— Howard Kissel, The Huffington Post
“Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a very good biography."
— Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Review of Books
"At last, a biography of the highly influential New Yorker film critic."
— San Francisco Chronicle
“The [present] I hope someone will send me is Brian Kellow’s Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.”
— Philip French, The Observer (U.K.)
“Kellow matches extensive research with acute perception in his sensitive and definitive biography of Pauline Kael, America’s foremost, and most controversial, movie critic.”
— Booklist (Top 10 Arts Books 2011)
“Brian Kellow’s biography of [Pauline Kael] is a fascinating and enlightening read.”
— Whitney Matheson, USA Today
“[A] finely balanced biography…[N]ot only will you not be disappointed with Kellow’s intrepid research, you’ll also be rewarded by his rich, close reading of her reviews (and the stories behind the writing of them) that does marvelous justice to Pauline Kael’s exhilarating gift for writing on the movies. Both, her admirers and her detractors could not have asked for a more satisfying biography.”
— The Hindu
“Absorbing.”
— Toronto Star
“[A] smashing first biography of the famed New Yorker critic.”
— The Buffalo News
“Compelling.”
— The Onion A.V. Club
“[A] richly detailed biography.”
— Maclean's
“Throws radiant light on the renowned movie critic.”
— David Finkle, The Huffington Post
"[A] fascinating new biography….[Kellow] captures [Kael's] best passages and most heartless insults and puts them in context.”
— Laurie Winer, Los Angeles Review of Books
“[Brian] Kellow finds the emotional core of [Pauline] Kael’s persona….Kellow is quickly becoming a film fan’s dream biographer…. That Kellow chooses to write in calm, unshowy prose is both astute as a journalistic technique and integral to the book’s aesthetic success….Kellow’s Kael transcends mere artistic contrarianism and resembles a sort of impassioned duelist.”
—Celluloid Void
“[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.”
Review
“[An] entertaining and insightful biography, as much a study of her criticism as a narrative of her life. . . . [Pauline] Kael emerges from [Kellow’s] biography as a great cinematic character, a kind of Citizen Kane, with a life lived and shaped by the dark.”
Review
andldquo;[
Pauline Kael is an] entertaining and insightful biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[
Pauline Kael is an] excellent Biography.andrdquo;
Review
“Illuminating.”
The New Yorker (Reviewers' favorites)
Review
andldquo;[A] smart and incisive biographyandhellip;. [Moviegoers] are in for a colossal eye-opening. [Kael's] love for film has no present-day counterpartandhellip;. Mr. Kellowandrsquo;s clear, independent view of his subject is his bookandrsquo;s most valuable surpriseandhellip;.Kael liked to disparage what she called andlsquo;saphead objectivity.andrsquo; Bur Mr. Kellow is no saphead, and he makes objectivity a great virtue.andquot;
Review
"Mr. Kellow’s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.” Scott Eyman, The Wall Street Journal
Review
“This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.”
The Wall Street Journal (Recommended Gift)
Review
andldquo;To appreciate Kaelandrsquo;s trailblazing, you have to see it in its broader context. Luckily, that backdrop is filled in with surefooted sophistication by Brian Kellow in
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, a fair-minded and deeply reported Kael biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;I fell on Kellowandrsquo;s book like a teenage girl on a lost volume of the
Twilight saga and found it quite as riveting as teens find anything to do with Bella.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A smart and eminently readable examination of the life and career of one of the 20th centuryandrsquo;s most influential movie critics.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[Kellow] brings a wise and sweeping vision to [Kael's] artistic mentality and her enduring legacy.andrdquo;
Review
“[M]eticulously researched.”
Slate.com
Review
andldquo;Fun, fair, and fluently written, [
Pauline Kael:and#160;A Life in the Dark] is an edifying read.andrdquo;
Review
“Mr. Kellow throws a great deal of light on the famous critic’s heretofore mysterious ways.”
The Portland Mercury
Review
andldquo;In
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark, author Brian Kellow offers a making-of story as engaging as her criticism. Itandrsquo;s not easy featandmdash;whatandrsquo;s less dramatic than scribbling into the night?andmdash;but Kellow tapped [Kael's] friends and foes and her writing while developing a colorful, even handed appreciation of one of filmandrsquo;s most influential criticsandhellip;.[An] eye-opening biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;The fact that most of us know little about [Kael's ] upbringing of her private life makes this an especially intriguing biography.andrdquo;
Review
“Compelling…thrillingly written and exhaustively researched….Genius.”
The Playlist
Review
andldquo;Kellow evocatively captures the blooming of film culture in the early 1960s, and the sobriety with which Kael took over the critical pulpitandhellip;.Kellow not only grasps the significance of his subject, but invokes the pace and energy of [Kael's] singular styleandhellip;.good, dishy fun.andrdquo;
Review
"Kellow has reconstructed Kael's 'life in the dark'....The result is a joy to read....[I]t's a fascinating book."
Los Angeles Magazine (Critic's Picks, November 2011 Issue)
Review
andldquo;[E]xhaustively researched, beautifully writtenandhellip;.Kellow has told [Kael's] life in incredible detailandhellip;.I found [
Pauline Kael:andnbsp;A Life in the Dark] enthralling because it vividly recreates a world I was part of, which seems now very distant. It is also because Kellow has been generous in quoting [Kael's] sensuous, percussive, often wise proseandhellip;.Pauline was a galvanizing presence, and Kellow has brought her back with overwhelming intensity.andrdquo;
Review
“
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a very good biography."
Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
andquot;At last, a biography of the highly influential
New Yorker film critic.andquot;
Review
“The [present] I hope someone will send me is Brian Kellow’s
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.”
Philip French, The Observer (U.K.)
Review
andldquo;Kellow, an erudite movie loverandhellip;writes beautifully and dexterously interweaves the story of a career long-thwarted with a sensitive reading of [Kael's] youthful enthusiasm and intellectual growth. To an impressive degree, he gets inside the head of a precocious, fearsomely smart young woman from small-town California and is able to describe what drove her, which authors turned her on (James, Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, Melville, Woolf, Proust), her love of jazz and her distaste for aesthetic, religious and political dogma. So thoroughly does he portray the development of Paulineandrsquo;s character and passionate engagement with matters aesthetic that it comes as no surprise she was able to burst onto the scene, at the relatively advanced age of 48, as one of the most dynamic cultural arbiters of the past centuryandhellip;.Kellow admirably brings Paulineandrsquo;s wit, insight and passion to life on the page and has made at least one critic nostalgic for the days when heavyweight critical battles raged and at least one of us lived a life worthy of a biographyandhellip;.[An] excellent biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Kellow matches extensive research with acute perception in his sensitive and definitive biography of Pauline Kael, Americaandrsquo;s foremost, and most controversial, movie critic.andrdquo;
Review
“Brian Kellow’s biography of [Pauline Kael] is a fascinating and enlightening read.”
Whitney Matheson, USA Today
Review
andldquo;[A] finely balanced biographyandhellip;[N]ot only will you not be disappointed with Kellowandrsquo;s intrepid research, youandrsquo;ll also be rewarded by his rich, close reading of her reviews (and the stories behind the writing of them) that does marvelous justice to Pauline Kaelandrsquo;s exhilarating gift for writing on the movies. Both, her admirers and her detractors could not have asked for a more satisfying biography.andrdquo;
Review
“Absorbing.”
Toronto Star
Review
andldquo;[A] smashing first biography of the famed
New Yorker critic.andrdquo;
Review
“Compelling.” The Onion A.V. Club
Review
“[A] richly detailed biography.”
Maclean's
Review
“Throws radiant light on the renowned movie critic.”
David Finkle, The Huffington Post
Review
"[A] fascinating new biography….[Kellow] captures [Kael's] best passages and most heartless insults and puts them in context.” Laurie Winer, Los Angeles Review of Books
Review
andldquo;[A] terrific new biographyandhellip; [Kael's early life ] was a revelation to me, thanks to Kellowandrsquo;s ace research.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Absorbing.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Mr. Kellowandrsquo;s even-handed treatment gives us [Kael] in all her maddening overconfidence.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This affectionate biography makes [Kael's] life and her passion for movies inseparable.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Mr. Kellow throws a great deal of light on the famous criticandrsquo;s heretofore mysterious ways.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Compellingandhellip;thrillingly written and exhaustively researchedandhellip;.Genius.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Kellow has reconstructed Kael's 'life in the dark'....The result is a joy to read....[I]t's a fascinating book.andquot;
Review
andldquo;
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark is a very good biography.andquot;
Review
andldquo;The [present] I hope someone will send me is Brian Kellowandrsquo;s
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Brian Kellowandrsquo;s biography of [Pauline Kael] is a fascinating and enlightening read.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Compelling.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;[A] richly detailed biography.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Throws radiant light on the renowned movie critic.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;[A] fascinating new biographyandhellip;.[Kellow] captures [Kael's] best passages and most heartless insults and puts them in context.andrdquo;
Review
“[A] rich, thorough, and admirably fair biography.”
Entertainment Weekly (Best Nonfictions Books of 2011)
Review
andldquo;[Brian] Kellow finds the emotional core of [Pauline] Kaelandrsquo;s personaandhellip;.Kellow is quickly becoming a film fanandrsquo;s dream biographerandhellip;. That Kellow chooses to write in calm, unshowy prose is both astute as a journalistic technique and integral to the bookandrsquo;s aesthetic successandhellip;.Kellowandrsquo;s Kael transcends mere artistic contrarianism and resembles a sort of impassioned duelist.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Illuminating.andrdquo;
Review
"[Brian Kellow] handles this difficult, unsympathetic personality with an admirable evenhandedness."
and#160;
Review
and#8220;A must-read for any devotee of film.and#8221;
and#160;
Review
"Kellow performs biographical magic ... Like Kaeland#8217;s own books, this bio is a page-turner."
~Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
The first major biography of the most influential, powerful, and controversial film critic of the twentieth century
Pauline Kael was, in the words of Entertainment Weekly's movie reviewer Owen Gleiberman, andquot;the Elvis or Beatles of film criticism.andquot; During her tenure at The New Yorker from 1968 to 1991, she was the most widely read and, often enough, the most provocative critic in America. In this first full-length biography of the legend who changed the face of film criticism, acclaimed author Brian Kellow gives readers a richly detailed view of Kael's remarkable lifeandmdash;from her youth in rural California to her early struggles to establish her writing career to her peak years at The New Yorker.
About the Author
Brian Kellow is the features editor of Opera News, where his column, “On the Beat,” appears monthly. He is the author of The Bennetts: An Acting Family and the coauthor of Can’t Help Singing: The Life of Eileen Farrell. A classically trained pianist, Kellow has also written for Opera and Playbill, among others. He lives in New York City.