Very very detailed biography. Starts with his death and the mysteries that surrounded it. If you liked the movie The Aviator this might be a good book for you. It fills in a lot of the blanks and some of the strange behaviors exhibited in that movie. Follows his life from when he was a sickly child. Moving around and around, losing his mother and then his father. His public persona as a ladies man, generally with young girls. Then his deterioration into different manias, locking himself away from the outside world for days to weeks to months on end. Again very detailed but after a while it just turns tedious. ( )

Fine biography, sprinkled with twentieth century American history. ( )