The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir by Paul Newman

320 pages

“In 1986, Paul Newman and his closest friend, screenwriter Stewart Stern, began an extraordinary project. Stuart was to compile an oral history, to have Newman's family and friends and those who worked closely with him, talk about the actor's life. And then Newman would work with Stewart and give his side of the story. The only stipulation was that anyone who spoke on the record had to be completely honest. That same stipulation applied to Newman himself. The project lasted five years. The result is an extraordinary memoir, culled from thousands of pages of transcripts. The book is insightful, revealing, surprising.”  --from the publisher

According to the book, Paul Newman worked very hard all his life to downplay his good looks. In this memoir, he wanted to downplay his stardom and diminish any unrealistic ideas people might have about him. These are lofty goals, but it might lean too heavily on the negative. It was hard for me to finish. I give it three out of five stars for the primary sources and outstanding organization of the material.