This Is Not My Memoir, Andre Gregory
This Is Not My Memoir, Andre Gregory
List: $22.99 | Sale: $16.09
Club: $11.49

This Is Not My Memoir

Author: André Gregory, Todd London

Narrator: André Gregory

Unabridged: 6 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/17/2020


Synopsis

"The iconic stage director, writer, actor, and founder of The Manhattan Project, a 1960s-70s avant-garde theater company, delivers smart, clever observations with an actor's perfect timing. From harsh beginnings—never sentimentalized—to a series of adventures—sometimes funny, sometimes not—listening to Gregory is pure delight." —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

This program is read by the author.

The autobiography-of-sorts of André Gregory, an iconic figure in American theater and the star of My Dinner with André

This Is Not My Memoir tells the life story of André Gregory, iconic theater director, writer, and actor. For the first time, André shares memories from a life lived for art, including stories from the making of My Dinner with André. Taking on the dizzying, wondrous nature of a fever dream, This Is Not My Memoir includes fantastic and fantastical stories that take the listener from wartime Paris to golden-age Hollywood, from avant-garde theaters to monasteries in India. Along the way we meet Jerzy Grotowski, Helene Weigel, Gregory Peck, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, Wallace Shawn, and many other larger-than-life personalities.

This Is Not My Memoir is a collaboration between André and Todd London, who together create a portrait of an artist confronting his later years. Here, too, are the reflections of a man who only recently learned how to love. What does it mean to create art in a world that often places little value on the process of creating it? And what does it mean to confront the process of aging when your greatest work of art may well be your own life?

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

About André Gregory

André Gregory has been directing in New York for more than half a century. He has collaborated on film versions of his theatre productions with Wallace Shawn, Louis Malle, and Jonathan Demme. The now legendary My Dinner with André was created by Gregory, Shawn, and Malle. He is also an actor, writer, teacher, painter, and author of the poetry collection, Bone Songs.

About Todd London

Todd London's books include An Ideal Theater, The Importance of Staying Earnest, and the novel The World's Room. A past winner of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, he was the inaugural recipient of the Visionary Leadership Award for contributions to the American Theater.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Apoorva on October 06, 2020

If I ever have to compose my biography sometime, I'll pick Andre's writing style for sure, so quirky. I selected this autobiographical work as it's a very long time ago I read one in this genre. Though not much of an enthusiast of this style, I went in all blind for reading it. And I was pretty impr......more

Goodreads review by M. on March 16, 2020

[URL not allowed] ...Theater is a metaphor for life. You get kicked onto the stage, you struggle for a few hours with your problems and those of the people playing scenes with you, and then you exit. The curtain falls and usually, the play is forgotten, just as I will be forgot......more

Goodreads review by Julie on March 13, 2023

I so deeply wanted to dislike this book because this man is obviously the hoitiest of the toitiest and a “starving artist” who was never actually starving because he was bankrolled by his immaculately wealthy father. But I was seduced by his obscure art, shocking self-awareness, and fantastic writin......more

Goodreads review by Tim on May 09, 2022

This memoir is succinct, selective and a fascinating piece of history, especially for fans of the conversations in My Dinner with Andre or of theater history. That film is just a piece of his life story, of course. He is a great reader in the Audible audio version. Gregory muses on late-life obsessio......more

Goodreads review by David on April 05, 2021

André Gregory is probably the closest thing I have to a guru. To hear him at 85 talking of his life, art, and current happiness in short, sweet bursts is a total gift. Like his other work, I'll be returning to this one often.......more