American Prince

Tony Curtis's early reflections on his life as a poor kid growing up on the streets of the Bronx ring true and are laced with colorful anecdotes and observations, creating a strong sense of time and place. He remembers the Depression--when his parents put him and his younger bother into an orphanage--being bullied and beaten because he was Jewish, and the untimely death of his brother. Don Leslie's voice, a soft yet gravelly rasp, sounds a bit like Curtis's without the New York accent. Leslie reads well, sustaining a tone of sardonic amusement when Curtis confesses to guilty affairs or stoops to name-dropping character assassination. However, despite Leslie's fine narration, once Curtis moves into his movie star years, his remembrances are more surface than substance. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine