I enjoyed a lot of Gene Wilder's movies so I thought I might find this book interesting, which I did. I am sorry to say that it lowered my opinion of him though.
I was enjoying it a lot and it was a fast & engaging read, until the section where he talks about Gilda Radner. He has some rather harsh things to say about his dead wife, claiming she was babyish and demanding. But that is not what bothered me. Certainly Gilda had flaws, most show biz people are huge balls of ego, so the idea that she was babyish and demanding is no surprise. What bothered me was this: Gilda is bedridden, suffering from the horrific effects of strong chemotherapy. Her little dog is in the bedroom with her, trying to get her attention. Finally, Gilda can't stand it any longer and screams at the dog, "Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Wilder, instead of sympathizing with her struggle, remarks that her temper tantrums scared both him and the dog. I thought to myself, "You insensitive ass, why don't you keep the damn dog away from her when she is feeling so ill?" I know I have yelled at my dog when I am fed up with her pestering me and I am not suffering from a deadly disease.
Further, Wilder admits that he is estranged from his "adopted" daughter, Kate. (I use quote marks because I can't recall him saying that he ever formally adopted her.) He says he doesn't understand what went wrong and blames it on Kate's anger at her biological father.
Wilder comes off as self-absorbed and clueless. The book is an interesting read but I wish he was a little less complacent about his own flaws, of which he seems unaware.
Review by Wendy Smith in the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/books/great-reads/la-ca-jc-gene-wilder-memoir-20160829-snap-story.html.
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