Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legacy
Susan Orlean
Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legacy
From the moment in 1918 when Corporal Lee Duncan discovers Rin Tin Tin on a World War I battlefield, he recognizes something in the pup that he needs to share with the world. Rin Tin Tin's improbable introduction to Hollywood leads to the dog's first blockbuster film and over time, the many radio programs, movies, and television shows that follow. The canine hero's legacy is cemented by Duncan and a small group of others who devote their lives to keeping him and his descendants alive. At its heart, Rin Tin Tin is an exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. But it is also a history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship and the changing role of dogs in the American family and society.
3.8 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Biography, Music, Stage & Screen |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
336 |
| RRP |
£16.99 |
| Date of Publication |
February 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-1843547082 |
| Publisher |
Atlantic |
| |
From the moment in 1918 when Corporal Lee Duncan discovers Rin Tin Tin on a World War I battlefield, he recognizes something in the pup that he needs to share with the world. Rin Tin Tin's improbable introduction to Hollywood leads to the dog's first blockbuster film and over time, the many radio programs, movies, and television shows that follow. The canine hero's legacy is cemented by Duncan and a small group of others who devote their lives to keeping him and his descendants alive. At its heart, Rin Tin Tin is an exploration of the enduring bond between humans and animals. But it is also a history of twentieth-century entertainment and entrepreneurship and the changing role of dogs in the American family and society.
Read an extract from the book | Telegraph
Reviews
The Evening Standard
Melanie McGrath
“With extraordinary deftness and consummate skill, Orlean weaves from the story of Lee Duncan and Rin Tin Tin a shimmering, complex fabric of worlds entered and left, of dreams glimpsed, then grasped at, of friendships disappointed, ambitions thwarted, legacies clung to, betrayals endured, values restated. Through the narrow lens of one man and his dog, this subtle, erudite and good-humoured part narrative history, part personal memoir and part non-fiction novel moves the reader through the early Hollywood period of the silents to the birth of TV and the rise of celebrity culture, stopping off along the way to marvel at what remains unchanged. Rin Tin Tin is a tremendous achievement, not so much the biography of a dog — albeit an exceptional dog — as a fully realised exploration of 20th-century America - its dreams, its vanities, its often preposterous genius for reckless reinvention.”
26/01/2012
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The Guardian
John Banville
“Fascinating … Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, another tale of mystery and obsession, has here written a wonderfully entertaining account of one of the strangest partnerships in a very strange milieu.”
04/02/2012
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The New York Times
Jennifer Schuessler
“Whether he was rescuing a damsel in distress with a crane or herding bad guys on the frontier, Rin Tin Tin “played out the founding principles of the nation,” Orlean writes, sounding more like Ken Burns than like the author of “The Orchid Thief”, her best-selling exploration of the more obsessive corners of the American character. But by the end of this expertly told tale, she may persuade even the most hardened skeptic that Rin Tin Tin belongs on Mount Rushmore with George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt, or at least somewhere nearby with John Wayne and Seabiscuit.”
20/10/2011
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The Economist
The Economist
“Few writers can elevate a yarn about a Hollywood dog into a meditation on the durability of myth and the nature of heroism. Ms Orlean manages this, and also delivers a gripping tale about companionship, loss, war and show business, and the life’s work of some endearingly nutty people.”
04/02/2012
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The Sunday Telegraph
Nicholas Shakespeare
“Orlean hopes that by reviving the story of a shaggy dog she will clarify her own story “and how I happened to become the person I seem to be”. Around this plastic, artificial and frankly saccharine centre, she constructs an efficient and unexpectedly charming narrative.”
23/01/2012
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The New York Times
Michiko Kakutani
“[A] rhapsodic, occasionally over-the-top book … The story of the original Rin Tin Tin and his devoted owner ... has the simple appeal of a folk ballad or a children’s story. This volume, however, does not have the suspense or organic arc of, say, Laura Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit” — one of the great animal bios to come along in recent years — and it sometimes feels like a magazine article artificially inflated to book length. Worse, when Ms. Orlean turns to explicating the mythology surrounding Rinty, the narrative can veer into pretentiousness and fuzzy overwriting.”
03/11/2011
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