Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #421315 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-17
• Released on: 2007-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781596913516
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Katharine Hepburn, who would have turned 100 in May this year, was known for doing things her own way. Her choices were famously unconventional—rejecting family life in favor of her career, living as Spencer Tracy's mistress for decades, wearing slacks instead of skirts. Convinced there are lessons here for modern women, journalist and novelist Karbo (Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me) decided to try to figure out how Hepburn made it all work. For instance, while Hepburn rejected marriage, perhaps she got everything she really wanted (love and companionship) without the baggage she didn't want (fights over doing the laundry or cooking dinner). Karbo acknowledges "you don't always have to know what you're getting into in order to succeed"; Hepburn knew that to "go forward blindly" often works just as well. Also, Hepburn found denial worked just fine, allowing her to ignore early criticism that she couldn't act or that she had a terrible voice. Karbo presents all this heterodox advice with great humor, but there's a point she's making to sister Gen-Xers: Hepburn broke all the rules women were supposed to follow and still had a fabulous life. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Customer Reviews

I find this book absolutely fascinating!
I find this book absolutely fascinating!

Karen Karbo has taken the power and wisdom of a legendary woman and created an enchanting manual for us to be `Hepburnized.' Kate has always been an inspiration for me in everyday life, and just the other day I thought someone should write a book about Kate's wit and wisdom. Ta da!! Here it is.....this lovely work I recommend to anyone ready to feel the fear and do it anyway and not to mention learning to find yourself absolutely fascinating!

I want to also say bravo to Karen for calling out William J. Mann and his preposterous "bio" on Kate. Read 'How to Hepburn' and find out what I'm talking about. Karen you are also a woman of substance. Kate would be proud.

A Cursory Look at the Hepburn Way of Life Offers Little in the Way of Revelation
As I was looking at the biographies section of my local independent bookstore, I noticed this compact book snuggled between much larger books about two screen icons who share the same last name, Audrey and Katharine Hepburn. Given the provocative title, I wanted to venture a guess as to which Hepburn the author was talking about since both women have inspired various levels of imitation and adoration even after their respective deaths. As I suspected, the book turns out to be about Kate on the not-so-coincidental occasion of her centenary. However, author Karen Karbo is not really examining the legendary actress's life in detail but rather taking a more cursory look at the cues in her life and memorable quotes that helped shape her enduring persona. Hepburn obviously lived life on her own terms, and Karbo sets out to define what the guiding principles were behind the actress's 93-year-old life.

Toward that end, the author does a reasonably entertaining job of presenting the Hepburn philosophy, steeped as it is in self-mythologizing, but there is nothing revelatory here that would surprise fans. It's common knowledge that the woman was a difficult personality with a wealth of idiosyncrasies. At the same time, she continues to be a beloved icon for her unmovable sense of self and her non-conformist mindset just as much for her enduring career. Karbo's treatment reads a bit like a manifesto, which I'm sure is intentional, but without the cumulative context of Hepburn's life events, there is a lack of resonance to the life lessons presented. Several comprehensive biographies on the market offer theories on her life, though none more accurately encapsulates her philosophy than the subject herself in Me : Stories of My Life. Even better is the two-part 1973 interview Dick Cavett conducted with a 66-year-old Hepburn (mentioned briefly in the book and available on the first disc of The Dick Cavett Show - Hollywood Greats). With her crackling persona in full bloom, the legend threatens to make Cavett into a whipping boy with her unapologetic honesty and lacerating wit. That will give you a more vivid impression of Hepburn's outlook on life than this book really can.

Bright, Sassy, and Spot-on
Like Karbo's other books, this is funny and perceptive. There's a lot of style here, as is fitting for the subject, but I don't want to make the book sound too light: it's genuinely thought-provoking.

As another reader points out, the book has the feel of a manifesto, and here that's a good thing. It moves along with the purpose, energy, and wink-as-you-go humor of, well, Hepburn.