Being Henry

Arthur Fonzarelli was an icon for my generation and the one before.  The character on the Happy Days TV show made being cool synonymous with a leather jacket, perfectly styled hair, and a mischievous background.  The man behind that character never felt like he fit that bill.  In his autobiography Being Henry, Henry Winkler explores his childhood as the child of immigrants and his tough relationship with Hollywood both before and after his break on the show.  Winkler covers his courtship with his wife Stacey and the generation of their family, but also of the struggles he had along the way.  He also focuses on the way his learning disability affected his craft and his ability to obtain work, along with being typecast as the “cool guy” in many auditions.

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I give Being Henry 3 out of 5 stars. In this book, Winkler shares a story about how he couldn’t read or memorize lines easily because of his dyslexia, but I have a hard time believing that.  When I heard him speak a few months ago at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center, his event was staged and billed as an interview with a prominent journalist.  However, instead of answering questions off the cuff as she asked them, Winkler delivered canned monologues that are actually found nearly word for word in this book – all memorized and nothing spontaneous.  It was even downright disrespectful the way he handled her questions – ignoring some outright, starting to answer others but quickly changing direction to give the next memorized response.  In the book, Winkler also shares a story about how he was called selfish by a girlfriend for only focusing on himself and, quite honestly, that event plus this book lend themselves to that exact feeling – he is a selfish “star” looking for someone to make him feel good and stay relevant.  So much of this book was directed towards talking about the hardship he had finding work after Happy Days, which is understandable, but he has had a long voice acting career and several prominent costarring roles on sitcoms in the past few decades.  He also had quite a career as a producer and director, so this really feels like a “woe is me” attention seeking type of work.

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If you are a fan of Happy Days, you will love this book.  There is so much about Winkler’s friendship with Ron Howard and the rest of the cast here that felt like a behind the scenes peek at the show.  My opinion of this book may be biased given the horrible impression his author event left me with – you may really enjoy this book.  I would also suggest this book for anyone looking to break into Hollywood – it’s not all it’s cracked up to be and Winkler’s struggles are not unique.

I chose Being Henry as my July nonfiction read.  I had put this one off for quite a while but wanted to dig in to move it from the TBR shelf to the autographed shelf in my library.  I did end up liking it more than I had anticipated – especially the two stories around the origin of “jumping the shark” and its later use as an Easter Egg in one of Winkler’s recent roles.  I also appreciate the photos he included – most of which he also showed at his author event.  With that said, I did walk away from it feeling a little like the shine has worn off his star.  Have you ever had a similar encounter with a celebrity?  Tell me about it in the comments!

 

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
• Current audio book: Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
• Book I’m most looking forward to: My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Fredrik Backman