PositiveThe A.V. ClubHarris is a savvy enough reporter and critic to tell when stories like the young Nichols’ limited, transatlantic vocabulary probably became truth through retelling; he’s also keen enough in his role of biographer to recognize when a subject simply wouldn’t cooperate with the conventions of the biographical form ... Harris has sidestepped that pitfall of even the most engrossing bio: the endlessly deadening chapters that’d be better left to the \'Early life\' section of a Wikipedia page. It’s a good indication that, despite occasionally needling quirks like the telegraphing of fateful meetings with future collaborators, Mike Nichols is a cinderblock of a book whose weight is never felt in the reading ... Getting May on the record stands as one of the book’s major accomplishments, one that calls out for a full-fledged follow-up ... The picture of Nichols that comes through most sharply across nearly 700 pages is of someone who lived to create and help others create.
