Are we reading a self-help guidebook? It feels like it. Occasionally, Stallone’s prose is mawkish and sentimental. But his raw honesty and vulnerability are compelling, and emotionally engaging. He is philosophical and poetic about the loneliness he endured.
Vivid ... Smart and dumb, thoughtful and ferocious, underestimated and overblown — Stallone’s contradictions make him a cut above the average celeb, and this book a cut above the average celebrity memoir.
His memoir reads like a breakneck self-help manual in which the author is variously cast as guide, guru and crash-test dummy ... The messaging can be cheesy and several of the stories feel fishy, but he spins a good yarn, plonking himself centre stage ... How true is this laundry list of hard knocks and life lessons? True enough. Stallone’s early struggles are well documented and largely verified.
This is an inspiring memoir, funny and charming and exhilarating, written with the kind of honesty and self-examination that makes us feel as though we haven’t encountered Sylvester Stallone, the movie star, but rather, the man behind the celebrity image.
