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Jim Henson: The Biography

Brian Jay Jones

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Oct 27, 2013 Lacey Louwagie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, biography

If you're going to read this book, you need to be prepared to cry for about an hour at the end.

I listened to it on audiobook, which meant I cried through the last hour or so, while I was doing the dishes.

Just so you're prepared, Jim Henson dies at the end.

The book leading up to that point is mostly fascinating. At moments I may have felt that too much time was given to Jim's early career (and I certainly didn't need to know all the lineage stuff in the beginning, although that seems to be standa If you're going to read this book, you need to be prepared to cry for about an hour at the end.

I listened to it on audiobook, which meant I cried through the last hour or so, while I was doing the dishes.

Just so you're prepared, Jim Henson dies at the end.

The book leading up to that point is mostly fascinating. At moments I may have felt that too much time was given to Jim's early career (and I certainly didn't need to know all the lineage stuff in the beginning, although that seems to be standard in biographies), but I understand the importance of examining how Jim got to where he ultimately ended up. What intrigued me most about his early career was how he wasn't specifically interested in puppets -- he was interested in producing TV entertainment, and some early opportunities in puppetry, along with his realization that puppetry was more appreciated as an art form in Europe, set him on that path. Still, he struggled throughout his career against being "boxed in" as just a "puppet guy."

I'll be honest and say that what I most adore about Jim Henson's legacy is his puppet-related work because there is so much warmth, depth, and magic in it. Reading this made me want to rewatch everything I'd already seen and hunt down everything I hadn't. A few things about Jim didn't totally gel with me -- his inability to hold onto his marriage, his weakness for fancy cars and fine furnishings, his penchant for humor that involved explosions. But other things resonated with me deeply -- his interest in imagination and mythology, his feeling that there would never be enough time to do everything he wanted to in life, and the integrity with which he treated his work, especially that which was aimed at children. His ethos, focused on acceptance, warmth, forgiveness, and optimism, is part of what makes his legacy so powerful, and the reason that I was so inconsolable when the author related his death and its aftermath. (I remember crying when I watched the Muppets' Tribute to Jim Henson when I watched it at age 9. Then I cried when I read this book. Then I dug up the tribute on YouTube, watched it again, and ... cried again.) Perhaps I would have preferred not to know about some of the more gruesome moments in Jim's last hours, and although I wept as I listened to it, when I later related the story to Ivan I found myself angry. Jim died of complications from Strep throat -- something that almost killed me when I was a child -- and something that could have absolutely been prevented if he had been less stubborn about seeking help earlier in his illness. If he had, perhaps we'd see where his imagination and his dreams would have continued to take him. It's especially painful to know he always imagined himself "sitting in his rocking chair, performing Kermit when he was eighty."

We're lucky that his family and colleagues saw the value in his work and have continued his legacy. If there was one thing I would have wanted more of from this book, it was an examination of how Henson-related projects unfolded after his death. (Happily, we'll get another one in March of 2014 -- what a lovely birthday present!)

Overall, this is a book that will stick with me for its humanization of a cultural icon, for its balanced examination of a brilliant dreamer, and for its Kleenex-box ending. Definitely worth a read. ...more

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Oct 18, 2013 Renata rated it really liked it

Shelves: grownup, nonfiction

I think this is honestly a 3-star book that I'm giving a bonus star due to my general goodwill toward Jim Henson. It's a solid, well-researched read, but pretty straightforward prose.

I mean, I LOVE Jim Henson. Who doesn't, right? In a way, that's kind of the problem with this biography. I'm not saying I wanted his name drug through the mud or anything, but this is pretty much just 500 pages of how everyone loves Jim Henson. Even the negative parts are glossed over like a job interview applicant ...more

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Dec 17, 2013 Adam Maid rated it liked it

The style can be dry at times and it's often bogged by minutiae, but you could do a lot worse than having to read too much about Jim Henson. And there wasn't a dry eye in this house at the ending. (Okay, my cats didn't cry.) ...more

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