Books read in 2023 # 221 - Undead undead undead...

221.Lugosi by Koren Shadmi - There's nothing really groundbreaking about this book or the artwork. Bela Lugosi is a fascinating character but mostly he's known for being a failure. He was a Hungarian actor who believed in union and had ambitions to play in Shakespeare. He was big in Hungarian theater in New York (after fleeing Europe for various reasons) and he had a terrible record with women. More accurately, he was a philanderer because he was a famous actor who could get any woman until one day he couldn't. This one feels like a record of failures, a man who wanted to be great but found success in being kitschy. And then became a drug addict. The last section feels like the writer just saw Ed Wood and decided to write from the perspective of the Martin Landau character. It's fine. It's not great. I won't remember it next year, not like that bauhaus song that's in my head whenver this man's name is mentioned.