Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Bast's memory after 53 years

Customer Rating:

Unfortunately this biography often irritated me immensely. I cannot even remember what I had for dinner yesterday, yet Mr Bast after 53 years seems to have an astounding memory of exactly what happened, just quoting a few examples from this book: As Jimmy wiped his plate clean of egg yolk with bread ... (page 116) I was still trying to sort this all out, when a stocky, older guy with nervous sweat dotting his upper lip sidled up ... (page 136) Jimmy sat on a bench in the shade of the station and stared over the vast expanse of shimmering sands, his expression serious, his mind obviously churning. (page 180) What a memory!

New material	Customer Rating:
This is a book originally published in 1956, a year after James' death with some added text. One of the greatest and most sought after bios on Jimmy.

Read it, even if you are sceptical

Customer Rating:

Oh well, James Dean... I remember being an upset and confused teenager pouring over pictures and biographies of my secretly beloved, but definitely dead and tragic movie star. But somehow, all the biographies of him I read didn't make sense on a personal level, as they couldn't make me understand James Dean, the person. Paul Alexander's biography (which is definitely better than the reputation it has) came closest to this point, and so I was very curious to read this new book here, since it seemed to confirm Alexander's speculations on Dean's (homo)sexuality. Bast's writing is quite self-conscious. First of all, he seems to shy away from sexual details to the point of keeping the reader guessing. While recounting an obviously very important romantic happening during a trip to the desert, the reader is informed that Bast spent the night with Dean in one bed, and that there was "nothing to fear". I'm no Peeping Tom, but I thought that knowing whether something sexual happened or not is crucial to understanding the whole relationship, and afterwards Bast writes of a new "relationship" between Dean and him, probably alluding to that night. But maybe I was just to prudish to get Bast's hint. Second of all, except of the last pages, Bast never openly claims that Dean was homosexual or at least bisexual. He only recounts his impressions of Dean, which for him seem to only allow one logical conclusion. On the other hand, a lot of his impressions are merely guessings ("Did Jimmy think...?", "Did he want to...?"), and this sometimes gives Bast's account the feeling of purely speculative wishful thinking. But after finishing the book, my feeling was that it had far more verisimilitude than other biographies, simply because Bast doesn't present his personal impressions and opinions as facts like other biographers tend to do, although he obviously was the person closest to James Dean and an acute observer. Bast's book is not intended to be a full biography, so the reader doesn't get much information about what happened on the sets of Dean's movies, simply because Bast rarely visited them. Also, we don't get many details about the (self-destructive) night life Dean lived in New York especially during his last year, but what Bast saw of it is enough to satisfy the reader's curiousity, also because it obviously wasn't as important and lurid as some sensational accounts claim it to be. Still, Bast debunks some myths, especially about the relationships with the various Dizzys and Piers and some other unclear points. Sadly, he doesn't comment on Paul Alexander's biography, probably because for Bast the rumours about Dean's sexuality were nothing new. All in all, the book leaves one sad and confused. Sad because James Dean's story was already sad during his lifetime, and his untimely death seems to me to be a logical conclusion to it. Confused, because like Bast, I couldn't make sense of the relationship between Dean and Bast. Wasn't it just all wishful thinking on Bast's part and Dean's behaviour (like sending Bast to a gay bar or telling him he should just take what he wants during their last again confusing talk) probably just intended to help Bast? Or was Dean just too confused and unstable to enter a meaningful loving relationship with anyone (he even was afraid he couldn't care about his pet cat) and so Bast got as close as one could ever get? I don't know the solution to this one, but Bast makes some good point about Dean's state of mind, namely that he believed he was bad (because his mother had left him and his father didn't care about him) and - probably because of this - suffered from bipolar depression. This may be (next to Dean's traumatic childhood and confused sexuality) another key to unlock the mystery of James Dean. Anyway, an older Bast rightfully concludes his tale with some musings about whether a true relationship with James Dean would have been fun and healthy (and possible), anyway. But Bast also makes one see why - despite it all - Dean was a great person and a great artist. Finally, what also surprised me very much was how open Bast could live his homosexuality, already in the 1950s meeting a lot of other (non-stereotype) gays, all being secret, of course. Well, love is a force of nature. And the love for Dean is there, in this book.

A very moving story.	Customer Rating:
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain first-hand insight into James Dean, his long-time friendship with the author of this book, Bill Bast, and into the homophobia that permeated the culture of that time, and how it shaped both their lives and connection to one another. Wonderfully written. Very moving.

Surviving James Dean

Customer Rating:

Even someone with a mediocre interest in Hollywood's rebel will find Bast's account intriguiing. There's something more than a biography hidden in the pages of "Surviving James Dean." It's almost much more like a memoir of William Bast's, and it allows the reader to get a sense of longing that one can easily relate to. "Surviving James Dean," is as much a love story as it is a recount of the icon-formation days of one of Hollywood's most enigmatic figures. The book honestly portrays the lonely, the erratic, and the very honest side of James Dean in a way that neither flatters nor harms a golden reputation shrouded in foggy dust. One of the best lines in the novel regards a hug shared between the "teammates," (Dean's reference for the friendship) on the New York streets before James flies off to LA to begin filming "East of Eden." Bast references the warmth the hug left on him that day and even now, while writing the book, the warmth is remembered. Reading this book is much like the warmth from a good, meaningful hug. Even now, writing this review, I can feel the warmth left by an honest and intriguing memory of one of America's notable figurines.