Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

by Gene Wilder

Book Overview

Gene Wilder was one of the great comic actors who defined the 1970's and 1980's in movies. From his early work with Woody Allen to the rich group of movies he made with Mel Brooks to his partnership... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031233706X
• ISBN13: 9780312337063
• Release Date: March 2005
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 261 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

If you love Wilder, you must read.

This book had me laughing out loud multiple times, I gasped, and I cried. I read it in less than 48 hours because I could not put it down. And weeks later I find myself still thinking about it. The life of an artist, a comic, and a romantic.

Wild about Wilder

Gene Wilder narrated an unabridged version of his book Kiss Me Like a Stranger (five CDs, six hours, Unabridged, Audio Renaissance) with a wonderful sense of timing that he has in his movies. This audio is an example of how celebrities should write (and in this case narrate) their biographies. Wilder takes the approach of his life with anecdotes about his life and the people around him (like Mel Brooks, Gilda Radner and many others).Her give you the inside look into movie making, without the trashing more celebrity's do What makes this audio biography stand out is the easy way Wilder recants his life. I wish he had padded this work with more stories> My favorite is however John Wayne was going to do the Frisco Kid (I wish he had, as much as I love Harrison Ford-JOHN WAYNE would have been better!) <br /> <br />well lets leave more stories for volume two whenever he writes it. <br /> <br />Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD <br /> <br />

Puttin' on the Ritz...

This book surprised me greatly. While I always considered Gene Wilder a funny actor, I had no idea how what a 'real' life he has had. Do not expect this book to be a slapstick comedy or only about the undeniably fabulous Gilda. This book is about Mr. Wilder and his story is interesting, funny, sad, and fabulous. A worthy read. This book has made my life a little better having read it. I have no idea if he reads these reviews, but just in case; Thank you for writing it.

Wait a secomd, you guys...........

I fully respect the opinions of those who do not have positive reviews of this book - everyone has the right to their opinion and evryone has different perspectives on things but I would like to make some comments on the book and to respond to some of the reviews I've read on here. First, the fact that Mr. Wilder has chosen to reveal the misatkes he has made to the public and to his fans who are reading this book is something I respect a lot. How many stories about celebraties do we see in which most of what is told about them is how wonderful, kind, heroic, and good they are? More than we can count. Most of the ones we hear reveal very little of the mistakes the person has made - the big mistakes, that is. In response to the review on here that says that Mr. Wilder doesn't care whether or not we will find out how self - absorbed he is and that he seems to WANT us to find out......I say, Yes, I think he does want us to find out that he's not the perfect angel that we would like to see him as. I think he wants to be honest about the fact that, like the rest of us, he can be self - absorbed and make bad choices. I think some - not all - celebraties get sick of being portrayed as this wonderful person that can do no wrong. I, being human, was disappointed when I listened to the book on cd and found that he is not the saint that he is portrayed as....but then I had to think, "Wait a minute, neither am I the nice person that I am expected to be by those around me." And, like what has happned to me when those who had these expectations of me found out that I am not all nice and sweet, people are judging him and saying, "Boy, were we wrong about this guy". None of us are what we seem to others: judging Mr. Wilder for being honest about the bad choices he has made and not chosing to hide them (which is what many people would do) is like saying that we don't have any bad choices to admit to. Something I noticed in the book is that when talking about his adopted daughter not having any communication with him, he said "my nephew let me know how serious MY problem with Katie was": he didn't say "My nephew let me know how serious KATIE'S problem was". He acknowledges that he has something to do with his adopted daughter not communicating with him. He calls it HIS problem with Katie: he doesn't call it HER problem, which would sound like she just has some kind of issue or that something is wrong with her. In his book, Mr. Wilder has absolutely nothing negative to say about his adopted daughter or her mother (his ex - wife) and he calles his ex - wife "a womderful woman" in his book. Mr. Wilder's love for Gilda Radner was so evident to me in that while he was honest about the rocky parts of their relationship, he had so many good things to say about her (he said that she was generious, kind, that he loved being around her) and he expressed insight into why she could be difficult sometimes (he saw that she was afraid of her own flaws being seen

Autobiography from a Different Perspective

I like biographies but I always struggle through the first few chapters of the obligatory growing up, here's what I did till I was famous. And while that is in this book, Wilder's flippant writing presented this part in an interesting manner before quickly moving the book to his career in New York. After reading this book, you'll realize he is not exactly who you thought he was. Being 52 I just assumed this older actor was a comedian by training. I couldn't have been further from the truth as he was trained as an actor from the beginning and really only fell into the comedic roles after studying with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio. It's interesting to hear him describe his early connection with Mel Brooks through Anne Bancroft that eventually led to great fame in Blazing Saddles and other hilarious movies. Wilder used a unique strategy at the end of many chapters concerning his career successes. In a sentence he states the contact that led to the contact that led to the person hiring him that got him the famous role. I've always felt life is a series of forks in the road where you never know what is on the other fork and deal with what you have chosen. He gives credit for his successful forks by showing how this contact was reached. One of them was through his very short unhappy marriage to his first wife so even though the marriage was a complete flop, relationships were made through acting together that eventually led to Mel Brooks. Wilder does a great job of exhibiting his warts. He fits the role of a typical neurotic, Jewish actor? Years of psychotherapy may have helped him or it may have been just a crutch he needed. It's really never clear. All of these issues center on his inability to maintain healthy relationships. The most serious example is the loss of his adopted daughter (his second wife is the real mother) who for reasons not explained does not interact with him. Of course the most famous relationship is with Gilda Radner. Unfortunately, many "fans" will be disappointed that the "fairy tale" is not the same in true life. Personally, I believe he honestly let you into his life and exposed himself instead of giving the publicity package we are so often given. In summary, this is his life told truthfully, both good and bad, in a flippant funny writing style that I really enjoyed. It is a fast read that I couldn't put down finding it quite touching in many parts. I strongly recommend this book for a great beach read or a deeper look in to Gene Wilder's soul.

Buy the Audio CD Version

About a month ago, I heard Gene Wilder being interviewed about this book on NPR from a theater in Berkeley, and was fascinated. He had a pleasant way of speaking, said intelligent things, and much to my delight, every time the audience would titter politely in the wrong places to show how hip they were, would ask in a perplexed voice, "What's funny about that?" (Are you listening Garrison Keillor?) I remembered Wilder from "Young Frankenstein," but other than that, knew little about him, including his marriage to Gilda Radner. This was an advantage, since I approached the book without preconceived expectations. Having enjoyed the interview, I bought the audio CD version, and listened to it in the evening over several weeks while nursing a bad back. Audio books read by the author are usually a good buy, because the author adds meaning through pronunciation, timing, and inflection. Moreover, Wilder as an actor knows how to deliver his lines. He has spent his life as an intelligent misfit, and most of the book is taken up with his efforts to adjust to an outside world that proved both friendly and hostile. Thus his use of the psychiatrist Margie as a foil. One reader review suggests that Margie is merely a "hackneyed and lame device." I disagree; it's clear to me that Wilder has undergone psychoanalysis throughout his adult life, and because he prefers women to men, I suspect that the model for Margie actually exists. The best parts of the book are his descriptions of various movies he worked in and people he has known. He makes a good case for at least some of the people in that world being decent, while excoriating others. I found his descriptions of dealing with racial issues to be particularly thoughtful and moving. As for other readers' criticisms: 1. The book is not sufficiently serious: Wilder's previous literary experience was writing screenplays, which tend to focus on visual and auditory images, and be lean on intellectual content. So it is with this book, which is why I recommend buying the audio CD version. Anyone who has read novels by Terry Southern (also a screen writer) will recognize this phenomenon. 2. He does not sugarcoat his relationship with Gilda Radner: Sorry folks, but successful actors make their livings pretending to be someone other than the person they really are, and so it appears to have been with Gilda. Henry James once observed that the only test for a novel is whether the author achieves what he set out to do. Applying that test to this book, I think Wilder meets it. Perhaps most importantly, he at least tried to be honest, and to a large extent, succeeds.