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Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister, & Me
Shana Alexander Book Review

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Plot Summary of Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister, & Me
"    Shana Alexander may be best known as a chronicler of the lives of others, people like, Jean Harris, and Patty Hearst, but she has also lived an interesting life herself. Shana's father, Milton, was a songwriter, who composed such classics as " Happy Days Are Here Again", and "Ain't She Sweet". Her mother, Cecelia, wrote columns in Variety on the fashionable and fatuous. This job eventually led to a job as a screenwriter in Hollywood, and a job as a Manhattan movie critic.
    Shana Alexander and her family knew George and Ira Gershwin, and Dorothy Parker. Shana's parents were complete opposites, pursuing their own interests, and even living on different timetables. They separate rooms in the hotel suites and furnished apartments that they called home. Shana herself has worked as a writer and commentator for "Life Magazine", "Newsweek", and "60 Minutes"."

Nathaniel Ford, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister, & Me
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
job/profession: - writer
Job/profession/poverty story Yes
Period of greatest activity? - 1950+

Subject of Biography
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - writer
Age: - 60's-90's
Biography of famous person? Yes
Ethnicity - White
Nationality - American (!)
How sensitive is this person? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other people
Physique - average physique

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 8 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast
Misc setting - Fancy Mansion
Century: - 1930's-1950's

Style
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Book makes you feel? - thoughtful
Writer's slant towards subject: - very favorable
Story of entire life, or part? - story of nearly entire life
Autobiography? Yes
Pictures/Illustrations? - A ton 16-20 B&W
How much dialogue in bio? - significantly more dialog than descript
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life? - 26-50% of book
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The Bradbury Chronicles by Sam Weller
The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well Known Name Dropper by Dominick Dunne
Bitter Fame: A Life of Sylvia Plath by Anne Stevenson


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Shana Alexander Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Nathaniel Ford  

SCHOLARS:


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