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Kenneth Turan was the film critic of the Los Angeles Times for nearly thirty years and was also a film critic for National Public Radio. He is the author of Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film, among other books. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
""Mr. Turan has provided an entertaining primer on the men and their studio. . . . Sharply observant.""--Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal ""They don't make 'em like this anymore.""--Christopher Bray, The Telegraph A New Yorker Best Book of the Year ""A record of a paradigm-shifting partnership, this is an entertaining, literate and beautifully crafted contribution to Hollywood history.""--Charles Arrowsmith, Los Angeles Times ""A fascinating celebrity extravaganza with original anecdotes and personal quotations that enlighten and entertain. . . . A deeply thoughtful account of the lives and times of these two titans of the film industry.""--Anne Sarzin, J-Wire ""A . . . highly entertaining tale of two men who were pivotal in the movie business [that] dives deeper than previous examinations. . . . Turan beautifully captures each man's values.""--Michele Willens, Los Angeles Review of Books ""[Turan] cherishes the art of cinema and the nuts and bolts machinations that made it possible. Anyone who feels likewise will relish his informative two for one bio of an unlikely and transformative partnership.""--Thomas Doherty, Tablet ""Turan casts an engagingly fresh light on two of old Hollywood's most powerful studio moguls. . . . An illuminating history of the MGM studio system. A thoroughly engrossing, well-documented biography of two Hollywood legends.""--Kirkus Reviews ""From film critic and historian Turan comes this irresistible story of the partnership (and friendship) between Mayer, a producer-turned-studio chief in the early years of the film industry, and Thalberg, a young-but-brilliant producer. . . . Turan is a thoughtful writer, highly knowledgeable about his subject, and his enthusiasm for the history of movies, and the people who made them, is downright contagious. A splendid addition to the literature of film history.""--David Pitt, Booklist ""Rich in anecdote and brimming with old Hollywood lore. Its great virtue, beyond its compulsive readability, is that it widens the scope on its two subjects, . . . spinning a good yarn in the process.""--Noah Isenberg, American Scholar ""Turan tells the story so well. . . . The story of this volatile, strange, but also deeply familiar relationship is so gripping that you suspend your foreknowledge of how LA and the movie business turned out and enjoy the ride.""--Emil Stern, Jewish Review of Books ""This feels like the book Kenneth Turan was born to write, for he brings to the task, and conveys to the reader, all the pleasure of deep research into an inexhaustible subject, all the expertise gained over the course of a lifetime spent loving and thinking and writing about Hollywood and the movies, and all the insight into and feeling for his remarkable subjects, with their gifts and their demons, of his own powerfully humane imagination.""--Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay ""Dazzling, engaging, and beautifully written, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg is the latest addition to the outstanding Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press. Turan captures these two titans with exceptional insight and appreciation. It's a wonderful piece of history, masterfully told.""--Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book ""How do you present a fresh version of a familiar story? Start by conducting meticulous research, then filter it through a twenty-first-century prism, aided by vast personal knowledge and superior writing skill. It's no small feat, but it's what Kenneth Turan has managed to achieve in this compelling dual biography.""--Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian
