Betsy Woodruff made a major sacrifice, and read the governator’s 600-page autobio so we wouldn’t have to:
…here’s the CliffsNotes: Arnold Schwarzenegger started exercising a bunch, bonked a lot of gorgeous women, won a ton of prizes for slowly flexing his chiseled bod to background music, made piles of cash by beating up people in movies, met a boatload of famous people, married a Kennedy, got to be governor and was totally awesome at it, kind of buggered up his family dynamic by having a love child and then not telling his wife for 14 years, and then made a nice list of life tips so you can be an all-American success story too.
Of course, you still might want to read this book, especially if you want to hear all about the intricacies of the European bodybuilding circuit in the 1960s or Maria Shriver’s approach to reupholstery. And if you also happen to like pictures of preposterously pectoralled menfolk in Speedos but for whatever reason have trouble finding them on the Internet, you should boogie on down to your local Barnes and Noble posthaste for a copy of your new favorite book.
Her review is much more entertaining than I can imagine the book is.
A colleague who knows that I’m a California ex-pat recently asked if I was aware of the fact that Arnold had written an autobiography. My response was (and is): He can write?
That Schwarzenegger made a mediocre Governor shouldn’t obscure the fact that the overall arc of his life was one of rags-to-riches success born primarily from personal motivation, determination, and self-reliance. It may be entertaining to throw jabs at him, but the fact is, we could only be so lucky as to have all of our immigrants share the attitude he brought to our country.
That’s what makes it so much worse. If he hadn’t done so well, finally becoming a governor, he would not have let us all down by his behavior. I do like his movies, but have to note: His acting dramatically improved in the first Terminator after his body was burned up. Come to think of it, in the second as well…