Stephen Humphrey Bogart

Yes, it's the son of the actor . . . and so I fully expected this curio to be pretty ghastly. My expectations seemed confirmed by the fact that it bore a laudatory cover quote from Connie Chung; all this proves that Bogart is pals with Connie Chung. Still, you know the principle: You bought it, so you better read it, buster.

And in fact it's quite good . . . although I found some aspects of it a bit disquieting.

As the front-flap blurb explains, our hero, R.J. Brooks, is "the only son of a legendary [now dead:] movie tough guy and his most glamorous leading lady"; compare and contrast with the back-flap bio, which tells us that the author is the "son of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall". To get away from his ghastly mother, Brooks has set himself up as a seedy P.I. handling "matrimonial cases"; but his life changes when his mother is discovered murdered in the midst of a sex act with her latest studly toyboy. Do you think there are maybe some issues here?

That aside, the tale rattles along fairly nattily, and there's a sufficient quota of snappy noir-style one-liners. Had Bogart published the book under a pseudonym, this wouldn't have been a concern: I might have wondered if the reference were to HB and Bacall, but it wouldn't much have bothered me. Who knows? Perhaps this was Bogart Jr's original intent but his agent/publisher persuaded him otherwise? I dunno.
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It's difficult to lose a parent, and it must be particularly awful when you're too young to realize exactly what is happening.

Stephen Humphrey Bogart, the son of the infamous Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, had just turned eight years old when his father died of lung cancer in January of 1957. Stephen, plagued by his father's legacy and struggling with his own identity, offers a very candid look into his father's life, complete with stories about John Huston, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra. The epitome of "toughness" Humphrey Bogart was fifty when Stephen was born, and just a little unsure about how a child would fit into his lifestyle.

Stephen Bogart just wanted to be a regular guy, as I suppose all children of famous people do, and his quest to understand his father is a painful, poignant, and very realistic perspective.… (más)