The book provides more detail and context. Purdum stresses both Arnaz’s underappreciated talents as a producer and showbiz entrepreneur and the couple’s enduring bond, which survived even their divorce and remarriages to others ... The biography offers a fascinating play-by-play of the sitcom’s development ... Empathetic.
This overdue and welcome biography, from a journalist with established bona fides in biography, is deeply researched and clear-eyed about Arnaz’s talents as well as his struggles with alcohol and what today, Purdum says, would be called a sex addiction ... Often surprising ... Especially good in its exploration of how the show came to be.
Purdum’s deeply researched, insightful and enjoyable biography, gives Arnaz his due as an entertainer and a savvy businessman ... With sympathy but open eyes Purdum chronicles Arnaz’s descent into alcoholism, which sapped his creative energy and the goodwill he had established over the years.
Purdum gives Arnaz his due credit for setting the gold standard for television comedy by utilizing three cameras and filming live in front of an audience. Purdum does not shy away from Arnaz’s tragic and destructive inner demons, his developing alcohol-use disorder, and his lifelong penchant for marital infidelity ... Purdum’s access to the Arnaz family and unpublished records allows him to essentially fact-check the memoirs written by Arnaz and Ball, and his honest reflection of a complicated man is poignant and heartfelt.
