Product Description

Abandoned as a boy in Kansas, Fatty Arbuckle found adulation in Hollywood in the early days of cinema. During his heyday he was more popular than Charlie Chaplin and became the first screen actor to make a million dollars a year. But in 1921 Fatty was accused of the rape and murder of an actress he had met in San Francisco. Although he was later acquitted, the virulent press speculation Arbuckle received destroyed his career. "I, Fatty" imagines Arbuckle taking centre stage to recount his life story - from humble beginnings to dramatic downfall, and the result is an utterly compelling, highly original and beautifully written novel which deserves the widest possible audience.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #369205 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"'I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!' Johnny Depp 'Jerry Stahl is the American hipster bard' James Ellroy 'Absolutely excellent' Loaded"

The Independent
‘Wise-cracking, poignant and frequently hilarious, the voice never cracks…it’s without equal’

Scotland on Sunday
‘An absolute triumph’

Customer Reviews

FUNNY HA-HA AND FUNNY PECULIAR
`I love this book,' reads Johnny Depp's comment on the front dust jacket of I, FATTY. `I like it,' is mine. It's a great title for a book and a tremendous tale of early Hollywood, told with a verve and flair reminiscent of that which E L Doctorow's RAGTIME applied to the eastern seaboard of the US of A.

I, FATTY is a first-person narrative fictional reconstruction of the life and times of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, the first Hollywood star to earn $1M a year, only to find his fame turn to infamy and fortune slip from his grasp after a party resulting in the death of a female partygoer in Room 1221 of San Francisco's St Francis Hotel.

Revisionist in the sense that this is Arbuckle's personal take on his career and eventual disgrace, there is still no way the fat boy wasn't "at it" - whatever "at it" may mean, of course. He was not a rapist (for reasons revealed in the book), and he was certainly no murderer. But the precise details of Virginia Rappe's demise remain as unclear as they ever were. Fact: Fatty Arbuckle - a definite dipso and occasional drug addict - is caught in flagrante with a damsel in dire distress who subsequently dies.

So what is Fatty Arbuckle exactly? A voyeur? Maybe. A raver? Well, yes: he's no angel, that's for sure. But neither is Virginia (-in-name-only) Rappe, the professional lady who expires subsequent to Fatty's alleged ministrations with a Coke bottle. And neither are the press and public any more angelic than they.

Thanks to the concentrated attention of the Hearst press in the main (Buster Keaton apart, Fatty's friends are the kind best described as "fair weather") Fatty Arbuckle is a condemned man from the start, and his world caves in completely until, exonerated at last (after a trial and retrials), he makes a lacklustre, partial, almost hand-to-mouth comeback as William Goodrich.

On the minus side, Jerry Stahl's narrative is a bit too magazine-speak smooth for my liking. Personal pronouns appear to be anathema to him: a hostile witness instantly becomes "madcap Mabel", Fatty's car is christened "Big man-mobile", and an ill-favoured acquaintance attracts the soubriquet "Old Onion-Breath". Nor is the odd anachronism outside the author's remit: Fatty (dead by 1933) bewails the lack of the GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS 20-odd years before its time. But on the plus side, though Chaplin is somewhat neglected due to Fatty's dislike of the man, there are wonderful characterisations here of Mack Sennett and Buster Keaton - in addition to which a young Bob Hope is glimpsed on stage with Fatty in Cleveland, Ohio - and Bogart on Broadway.

I LOVED IT TOO
As biographies go, this was a page turner, and I honestly loved it from the start, right the way to the end. I put it in my top three biogs that include David Niven's and Michael Caine's own self penned books.

So what if it's not 100% accurate? You get a bloody good seat, right next to the fatman, as he chews out his own version of his own life story, and by god does it make a good listen (read).

The two downsides to this book are as follows: 1. Lack of pictures, and lots of to see who we are dealing with. 2. The book ends.

Fear of fatty? Not after this read. Think his films were unbelievable, just dare to take the salt you'll need when revelling in his own story.

Thanks Fatty, here's one in the eye for you.

I. Fatty
Unfotunately, I can't agree with the other reviews on this book. I really did not enjoy it. Interestering in parts (beginning and end only). Disliked the style of writing and at times I couldn't understand what on earth was by said. It didn't give me only single laugh.