Book Review	Book Reviews Archive

Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland
By Gerald Clarke
Random House
How to order Alfred C. Kinsey: Sex the Measure of All Things
By Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
Indiana University Press
How to order

The words "Kinsey" and "contro- versy" seem to go together like ham and eggs, dildo and strap-on, love and marriage; well, maybe not love and marriage, but you get the gist. The man who started the sex-culture wars in 1948 with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male is now in the middle of another media firestorm. The life and career of Kinsey has always been controversial­ the publication of his two volumes on human sexuality radically altered how Americans talked, thought, and even had sex. Praised by some as a prophet of liberation and science, he was equally condemned by others as both a sloppy scientist and immoral public influence. As if this wasn't bad enough the publication, in 1997, of James H. Jones's Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life escalated the attack on the Doctor by claiming, in the most shocking language, that Kinsey was a deeply tormented homosexual masochist whose "inner demons" caused him to falsify and skewer his research. Needless to say in a world always looking for a way to demonize sex (and queerness) these images and ideas were well received and propagated by the media.

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Alfred C. Kinsey: Sex the Measure of All Things (Indiana University Press, cloth, $39.95), a new biography, by Gathorne-Hardy's­ which was being researched and written as Jones was working on his­ covers, by necessity, much of the same ground. While it gives Jones's work enormous credit, it also positions itself as a corrective to what Gathorne-Hardy sees as Jones's deeply ingrained prejudice against his subject and a "strong distaste for homosexuals and homosexuality as well as non-traditional sexual practices." Gathorne-Hardy, the biographer, is methodical and cautious, and lacks Jones's more gripping narrative drive. But as a researcher he performs splendidly. He has uncovered new, and vitally important material, such as Kinsey's productive work and personal relationship with novelist Glenway Westcott. But Gathorne-Hardy's biography functions most importantly as a stinging, insightful critique of Jones's implicitly anti-sex and homophobic biases. Detailing Jones's constant use of innuendo, pejorative language, internal contradictions, and distorted misreadings, Gathorne-Hardy builds a solid case against the Jones's methods and conclusions by placing them in an increasingly anti-sexual cultural­ reminiscent of the society Kinsey himself was fighting against fifty years ago.

A gilded life?

Lets face it. Judy Garland did not have a happy life: that land where "sorrows melt like lemon drops away above the chimney tops" became, for here, a life plagued by emotional agony, dependency on drugs and alcohol, exploitative relationships, suicide attempts, and often physical violence. It was, on the whole, hell, made even worse because of Garland's enormous resilience and desire to survive. Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (Random House, cloth, $29.95) is an engaging, wonderfully researched, and elucidating biography of Garland that is as humane as it is emotionally wrenching.

Garland has been the subject of over 20 biographies and memoirs since her death in June 1969 (just before the Stonewall riots), and Gerald Clarke's biography follows the basic themes established by the best of these. (Clarke also wrote the 1988 best-selling biography of Truman Capote.) While most of these Judy-bios portray Garland as endlessly tortured by relentless, and often incomprehensible, inner demons, Clark brings to his work a far harsher­ and feminist­ portrait of how Garland was spectacularly ill-treated by employers, family, and lovers. Her mother was feeding her amphetamines at age four. She was sexually harassed as a young teen by MGM producers and directors. Second-husband Vincente Minnnelli (father of Liza) was sleeping around with men soon after their marriage. Third husband Sid Luft stole millions from her and physically assaulted her. Fourth husband Mark Herron had an affair with Peter Allen, husband of Garland's daughter Liza. Garland slept around, too, with Clarke telling of Garland's affairs with Sinatra, Glenn Ford, Yul Brenner, and Tyrone Powers, as well as her affairs with women. Clarke tells of Garland's attacking her son Joey with a butcher knife and her desperate, hysterical attempts to secure drugs are distressing and shocking. But even with these details­ simultaneous deliciously lurid and upsetting­ Clarke never exploits them as cheap gossip but rather weaves them into a emotionally detailed and observant depiction of the performer.

Author Profile:  Michael Bronski
	Michael Bronski is the author of Culture Clash: The Making of Gay Sensibility and The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom. He writes frequently on sex, books, movies, and culture, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
	Email:	mabronski@aol.com