Overview

The most authoritative biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between Eastern and Western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans.Forty-five years after Bruce Lee's sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee's life. It's also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee's family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon. Polly explores Lee's early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father's struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery. Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts--not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.

Full Product Details

9781508264828

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Reviews

""Bruce Lee: A Life is proof that dogged research and sharp insight lie at the foundation of any successful biography. Its 600-plus pages suggest a definitive work to satisfy Lee's fans and spark curiosity in a new generation."" -- ""Associated Press"" ""It moves with the authority, grace, and economy of Lee himself. I was hooked from the first chapter."" -- ""Jimmy McDonough, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Lee's charisma, ambition and relentless appetite for combat leap off the pages."" -- ""CNN"" ""Narrator Jonathan Todd Ross' performance brings Lee to life with exuberance and energy. He was relentless in his pursuit of fame, and Ross conveys that frenzy with his rhythm, tone, and timing...Ross' poignant narration of the funeral service captures the grief of his wife, Linda, and his two young children. Listeners will enjoy Ross's presentation of this legend."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Spirited celebration of the life of 'the Patron Saint of Kung Fu, ' a stalwart of pop culture whose career is due for a revival...Students of martial arts, film history, and the 1970s alike will find much to enjoy in Polly's homage."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Succeeds in capturing [Lee's] energy and achievements, a volley of incident that rarely lets up...A roundhouse kick of a biography."" -- ""Times (London)"" ""The first noteworthy treatment of its subject--and a definitive one at that...Above all, Polly explores how Lee's fame helped reshape perceptions of Asian-Americans in the United States."" -- "" New York Times Book Review"" ""This thorough, well-sourced biography from Polly is an engrossing examination of the life of a martial arts movie star and his shocking, early death...Polly wonderfully profiles the man who constructed a new, masculine Asian archetype and ushered kung fu into pop culture."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)""

Author Information

Matthew Polly is the nationally bestselling author of American Shaolin, Tapped Out, and Bruce Lee. A Princeton University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, he spent two years studying kung fu at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Esquire, Slate, Playboy, and the Nation. He is a fellow at Yale University. Jonathan Todd Ross, a graduate of the NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, has narrated over 120 audiobooks across a wide variety of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, self-help, YA, biography and memoir, children's literature, and romance. He's won an Audie Award (Restart by Gordon Korman), received numerous YALSA and Earphone Awards (Swindle by Gordon Korman, Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger, and more), and made all of his middle school bullies regret every mean thing they ever said to him when he narrated Tom Brady's The TB12 Method. Jonathan loves narrating all genres, bringing the author's words to audio-life.

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