About book Furious Cool: Richard Pryor And The World That Made Him (2013)
“Richard was a junkie first, a genius second. Always." - Paul MooneyThe words of comedian Paul Mooney, whom few would contest is Richard Pryor’s greatest and most knowledgeable disciple, capture the two facets of Richard Pryor’s life most already know. However, Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him by David and Joe Henry, adds the perspective needed to understand how truly great Richard was as a comedian, and how unbelievably tragic it was that Richard’s genius was consumed by his addiction. There is no flinching at all while looking at Richard’s life, and there is much that would make one flinch. The best example is Richard’s return home to Peoria, Illinois after becoming a star. Looking down the seemingly endless line of folks waiting to get an autograph, or book signed, Richard recognizes a face from his childhood. It is the neighborhood bully who sexually assaulted Richard when he was in elementary school. Had the Henry brothers flinched in discussing this episode of Richard’s life, and the many, many other disturbances that would follow, it would have diminished Richard’s great achievement on stage. Richard told the truth on stage, and no matter how painful that truth, Richard offered no hiding place from it’s light, or offered any other option than to laugh. Richard Pryor’s life was mired in controversy and work, and he was a visionary who refused to live within the confines of social and legal acceptability. At many times in my experience in reading this piece, I was impressed at the social weight of his work. It is an incredibly biography that is as pleasurable to read as it is to put the book down and search the internet for the performance pieces mentioned. The piece is written in a very approachable manner, and we are anecdotally told the story of Pryor’s rise to fame, destruction in the face of substance and peer abuse, and his ultimate yielding to the disease that claimed his physical form.I found pleasure in recounting the life he lived, and learning about the fame and reading the work he did as a comedian throughout his career. Many of my experiences with Pryor come from popular culture that I have consumed as an adult - and while most of his successful years were in my lifetime, it wasn’t until adulthood that I can say I was even allowed to consume his work because of the controversial nature of his brand of comedy. I am grateful to that, because after having learned, and read, and experienced satiric and racially charged artwork, it is only now that as an adult I can truly appreciate his work correctly.That said, I will say that for a great deal of my life, I learned the films I have seen and enjoyed weren’t his best work. At all. Furthermore, I hardly even remembered seeing him in Lost Highway, nor did I know that he was a writer and originally considered for Blazing Saddles.There are some surprising elements of his life - for instance his intense violence to all of the people around him, along with the almost psychotic carelessness with which he handled his personal and professional relationships. I was surprised at his insatiable hunger for drugs and dangerous situations. His ability to turn work down that may have been incredibly meaningful, and pass it up for work that paid significantly more but seemed to be a tarnish on the career he built. He was a genius, however, and many of his indiscretions can be attributed to not being destined for this world and how its social elements work together. This can be seen in countless visionaries and artists who we hold in the highest regard in our society, and somehow, it is completely acceptable when we put it in the context and in perspective of their overall canon of work.After having read this book and then read some reviews that mentioned and proved a lot of it was taken and barely cited from Paul Mooney’s 'Black is the New White,' I do wonder about the overall academic and journalistic integrity of the piece, and it is troubling that the piece has not entirely been screened in a manner consistent with making sure that the credit was not more clearly given to the original authors. Regardless of this, it was a great book.
Do You like book Furious Cool: Richard Pryor And The World That Made Him (2013)?
Interesting story of his life but sometimes it felt like I was getting lost in the details.
—MarvelousMe17
there were films listed in this book that I had no idea Pryor was in or attempted to make
—Jessie
