Brian Jay Jones

I think it's high praise to say that if you cry at the end of a biography, the author has done his job well. That is to say, he's presented the life of his subject in such a way as to bring that person back to life - and make you all the sorrier when you reach the end and they are gone. Jones includes great detail, both professional and personal, and, I think, really captured who Jim Henson was - without idolizing him, which would be so easy to do. A fantastic bio.

Very engaging and even-handed biography of the man responsible for several generations' earliest memories of reading. I read another Geisel biography at least twenty years ago that clearly had Audrey Geisel's oversight; this one did a much more complete job of showing you the positive and negative aspects of a complex human being. While he wasn't a saint (by any means - and Jones treats the darkest aspects of Geisel's story very sensitively, and with care), I came away with a fair amount of show more respect for someone who developed into a real perfectionist and something of a philosopher, finding true success at writing for children - whom he empathized with, but didn't actually like very much - well into his forties. If nothing else, the biography really made me want to read the early Dr. Seuss books I didn't recognize, such as Scrambled Eggs Super and On Beyond Zebra, many of which have turned out to be just as charming as the more famous Cat in the Hat, Grinch, and Lorax. show less

This has got to be THE biography about Jim Henson. The damn thing is 490 pages, not counting the countless pages of notes and the freaking index. It is comprehensive and detailed, almost too much so. I don't need to know all of the countries Jim flew to in one week.

Still, it's a great read. The interviews with his entire family and dozens of staffers (including Frank Oz) help paint a realistic picture of who this man was. Unfortunately, thanks to all that information, he's not a man I show more really like any more. Yes, I love his work and yes, he was a rare creative genius. But I don't really have time for adulterers.

Don't learn about your heroes, I suppose. show less

I'm not a Henson-ite the way other members of my generation are. I grew up on Sesame Street, but I never saw The Muppet Show or Fraggle Rock until I was an adult, though I did see most of the Muppet films at various points. I didn't see The Dark Crystal until adulthood; I've still never seen Labyrinth. But reading this book made me wish I had been a Hensonite, or at least would become one. I might have never seen Labyrinth, but now I'm even curious about Henson's early work in experimental show more film. I'm not a Hensonite, but I do like behind-the-scenes examinations of film and television, and getting a glimpse into creative people, and this book provides both of those, and in an area I don't normally go. (The making of The Muppet Show is very different to that of 2001!)

Brian Jay Jones writes an exhaustive and entertaining portrait of an endlessly creative and inventive mind. Both outside and within his puppet-related work, Henson was restless, continuously pushing the boundaries of what he thought possible, continuously trying new things. Jones captures that very well in this book, which despite its length, and despite being a biography (a genre I find tougher to read than novels), I tore right through. The ending, especially, is very moving, with an account of Henson's funeral that makes you feel like you were actually there. A good biography, I think, makes you feel like you've lost someone when you reach the end of their life, and Jones definitely does that here. show less