Publishers Weekly
04/12/2021
White (The Tastemaker) suggests legendary director Alfred Hitchcock had more lives than a cat in this sweeping biography. In his coverage of Hitchcock’s 60-plus-year career, White examines 12 “lives” that shaped what he terms the “Hitchcock brand” (as opposed to the familiar “Hitchcock touch”). “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up” recalls Hitchcock’s childhood traumas of abandonment and punishment (from his experience at school) as the basis for the distress and fear he portrayed in his films. “The Murderer” discusses “voyeurism, guilt, enchanting blondes” and covers Hitchcock’s desire to reframe the slasher genre. The core of “The Auteur” follows Hitchcock’s films from “conception to projection,” detailing conflicts with collaborators, while “The Womanizer” tackles what critics have called “full-on misogyny” on-screen. Inside stories behind the director’s classic films abound, as with an anecdote about Evan Hunter, who wrote the screenplay for The Birds to little credit; after telling a child he wrote it, the child responded, “No, you didn’t... Alfred Hitchcock did.” Hitchcock fans will be enamored of this canny, full portrait of an artist with a singular vision. (Apr.)
John Lahr
"Edward White’s The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock is a piñata of literary pleasures. Learned and graceful, thoughtful and provocative, White cracks the Hitchcock code with deft analysis and fine writing. It’s a high-stepping performance full of humor and depth. Walking a tightrope between criticism and biography, White places both the man and his myth in the cultural landscape of his times. In the process, he returns us to the films with a much more informed eye. A book to keep and to return to."
New York Times - Parul Sehgal
"A provocative new way of thinking about biography....The radial structure vibrates, like Hitchcock’s best films, with intuition and mystery."
The New Republic - John Banville
"White’s book is a perceptive, plainspoken, and vigorous portrait of an exceedingly strange, complicated, and perhaps deeply wounded man."
Noah Isenberg
"By approaching the life and career of Alfred Hitchcock from a dozen distinct and revealing vantage points, Edward White presents a portrait that is highly nuanced, brimming with critical insights, and, like his subject, thoroughly entertaining."
Glenn Frankel
"Thoughtful and nuanced....Grasps Hitchcock’s enduring hold on our aspirations and our fears."
The New Yorker
"Rather than forcing Hitchcock’s often contradictory guises into a coherent whole, this deft account takes them as a starting point. The result is a nuanced and frequently unfamiliar portrait. Essays on the director’s sartorial and culinary preoccupations and his penchant for publicity—chapter headings include ‘The Fat Man’ and ‘The Dandy’—yield new perspectives on a multifaceted career."
Wall Street Journal - Farran Smith Nehme
"Full of such sharp observations, offering a Hitchcock whose art endures alongside—and in some ways depends upon—his insecurities and mistakes."
The Economist
"Perceptive and gracefully written, The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock is a bracing study of the master of suspense.... It is a rare book that could pleasurably be twice as long."
The Observer - Peter Conrad
"[An] innovative biography of Alfred Hitchcock.... Tracking Hitchcock’s contemporary influence, White is an enterprising tour guide."
Alexander Kafka
"The great strength of The Twelve Lives is that a reader comes away from it with a vivid sense of how Hitchcock ignited screen masterpieces with the fires of his inner discord and contradictions."
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2021
Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)has been the subject of dozens of books in the last 20 years, but White (The Tastemaker) distinguishes his work with an inspired approach. Bypassing a traditional narrative, this necessary and perceptive study of the filmmaker and his cinematic impact is framed in 12 separate portraits, each focusing on a particular aspect of Hitchcock's character. Crafting detailed but highly readable studies of, for example, the innovator, the frightened youth, and the dark-edged jester, White offers a kind of anatomical overlay, where each trait infuses the next with even more subtext. This is especially true of an early chapter presenting recently resurfaced stories about Hitchcock's alleged harassment and abuse of women in his professional life such as Tippi Hedren. This section, which gives readers a sense of the director's need for creative control, provides a fascinating contrast to later chapters that deal with his weight troubles, his lack of concern over analysis of his films, and the posthumous, living mythology associated with the name Hitchcock. VERDICT An absorbing, thoughtful, and balanced look at a master of his medium.—Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA
SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile
Narrator Qarie Marshall’s amiable tone takes some of the academic edge off this fascinating deep dive into the influences, life, and legacy of the world’s most famous director. The episodic structure makes for easy listening and uses such personae as auteur, womanizer, and the fat man to cast different lights on Hitchcock. Marshall’s even delivery has just a touch of a smile to it, mirroring the droll humor of the subject. A strong case is made for Hitchcock's cultural importance, and there's much to enjoy for any film history buff. While being an avid Hitchcock watcher isn't required, beware of spoilers for most of his films, including lesser-known ones. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-01-19
A fresh assessment of the legendary director.
Following The Tastemaker, his outstanding biography of Carl Van Vechten, White takes on another titanic figure in the arts. The author plumbs Hitchcock’s films and TV shows to reinforce his view that he was a man of many contradictions, “usually complex, often troubling, but always vital.” White breaks down his subject’s psyche into 12 “lives,” beginning with “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up,” which delves into his childhood trauma, “dread of authority,” and the “lifelong fascination with cruelty and violence that fueled his creativity.” In “The Murderer,” White posits that to “crack the Hitchcock code there’s no better place to start than at the grisly end,” as he leads us down a bloody path that runs from The Lodger to Psycho. The author reveals Hitchcock’s ability to promote his brand and create a “personal mythology.” In “The Womanizer,” White explores Hitchcock’s complex, contradictory relationships with women as a “creator and controller,” best seen in Vertigo, and his dependence on his wife, Alma. Discussing Shadow of a Doubt, “a point of continuity between the two halves of his career” gives White the opportunity to point out that the “most insistent theme of his work is a seemingly happy home cruelly torn asunder.” Examining Rear Window, which the director considered his “most cinematic” film, the author notes now “Hitchcock knew the power one could command by looking—and by denying others the opportunity to look.” It was the success of his two TV shows that helped create the “Entertainer,” and “The Pioneer” neatly shows how “each of his works is in deep conversation with the rest.” Hitchcock “The Londoner”—White is especially good on the director’s early English films—and the Catholic “Man of God” complete the 12 lives. Although the author doesn’t uncover much groundbreaking information, he presents the man and his films in a readable, entertaining package.
An incisive literary autopsy of the Master of Suspense.
