Johnny Cash was deciphering Morse code transmissions from the Soviet Union. Theodor Geisel was adding a fake Dr. to his pseudonym Seuss. Richard Simmons was playing a dancing meatball in French commercials. A new book by Brad Dunn briefly explores the pivotal point in the lives of 100 famous people ' When They Were 22.
This book is a quick, easy read with the kind of trivia that's bound to resurface in a heated Trivial Pursuit game. It's a good gift for a soon-to-be graduate or otherwise unemployed, unmotivated 22-year-old. The stories are rarely moving, though with most maxing out at three or four paragraphs, it's hard to expect much.
Brad Dunn, also the author of a New York City travel guide, writes with the flattering tones of James Lipton and makes every celebrity's early years sound like the middle chapters of a Charles Dickens novel. Stephen Hawking's diagnosis with Motor Neuron Disease belittles the sad story of Pamela Anderson's pre-Playboy life ' she was a personal trainer in Vancouver. Then again, more people watch Baywatch than read about astrophysics.
The danger of this book is to take it too seriously. The wonder of it is that many people who would become famous and successful were once collecting rejection letters (J.D. Salinger) and mastering the art of upholstery (White Stripe frontman Jack White). As a conversation starter or an icebreaker in an awkward situation, this book will always have a place on coffee tables, just not on literature lists.
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Justin Thompson
Young Seuss, Johnny Cash exposed
