700 Sundays - Softcover

Crystal, Billy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446698512 ISBN 13: 9780446698511

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

Now in paperback comes Billy Crystal's heartfelt and hilarious "New York Times" bestseller: a moving memoir of his youth and the precious days shared by an adoring father and a devoted son.

About this title

Review:

Actor and comedian Billy Crystal has forged a highly successful career by portraying other people in movies like When Harry Met Sally... and City Slickers. But in 700 Sundays, a memoir based on his one-man Broadway play of the same name, Crystal tells his own story, dissecting an often complex relationship with his father and how that relationship resonated in other aspects of his life. His father, Jack Crystal was an influential jazz concert promoter and operated an influential jazz record label, affording his son an opportunity to tell stories of being taken to his first movie by Billie Holliday and seeing his grandmother suggest that Louis Armstrong simply "try coughing it up." But Jack died when his son was fifteen years old, soon after a forever-unresolved argument between the two, leaving Billy to cope with crushing grief while simultaneously and perhaps ironically trying to launch a career in comedy. This lends 700 Sundays much needed gravity in a volume that is packed with zingy one-liners and whimsical observations that serve to illustrate the comedy career Crystal forged, while also providing some decent laughs. Interestingly, there is very little reference to the better known accomplishments of Crystal’s Hollywood career as the author chooses to focus instead on the seemingly mundane but highly entertaining aspects of his Long Island roots. Though 700 Sundays (the name comes from Crystal’s estimation of how many Sundays he got to spend with his father) is packaged here in book form, it reads like a piece of theater and, more specifically, like a selection of memories about a father, lovingly and touchingly re-told by his loving son. --John Moe

About the Author:

He and his wife, Janice, have been married for thirty-five years and have two daughters and one granddaughter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0446698512
• ISBN 13: 9780446698511
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192