Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Other Side of Me
A Memoir

by Sidney Sheldon
read by Mike O'Malley



      I have always been a fan of this talented writer, but I had no idea how far his talents extended. Here Sidney Sheldon bares his soul for us to look at the man beneath the glitzy exterior. Here is a man, who at 17, worked at a drugstore so that he could steal enough pills to commit suicide. After winning an Oscar for writing the screenplay, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, Sidney was diagnosed as being manic-depressive. While he is indisputably one of the greatest storytellers of all time, his own story may be the greatest and most dramatic of all.

I wish the memoir had told about his personal life in more depth. Along with his stunning successes in nearly everything that he attempted, Sidney did suffer profound losses and his share of failures, but his bouts of deep depression and sense of failure are hard to understand in light of his accomplishments.

His inspiring tale, read by Mike O'Malley, tells of the determined boy who struggled to break into the entertainment world, from a theater usher to struggling songwriter, to writing Broadway plays and finally a top Hollywood screenwriter, and the creator of some of television's biggest hits. Here he tells of his more than 60 years of association with the Hollywood giants of our time. He eventually became one of the greatest of the best-selling novelists, with over a dozen books on the bestseller lists, but this memoir only covers his life up to the time he became a novelist.

What a fascinating man. What an engrossing life story. Here are six-and-a-half hours of pure entertainment.

The Book

Time Warner
November 2005
Audio Book, Abridged
1-59483-096-7
Nonfiction/Autobiography
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Beverly J. Rowe
Reviewed 2006
NOTE:
© 2006 MyShelf.com