Tough without a gun; the life and extroardinary afterlife of Humphrey Bogart by Stefan Kanfer 264 pages

I noticed this book just sitting on a cataloger’s desk waiting to be processed and it caught my attention. Always a big Bogey fan, I thought I’d skim through the book while waiting for whatever was happening to finish. Kanfer’s style is like telling a story without much lecturing. He starts at the beginning telling of Humphrey’s parents. He covered their backgrounds and how they met. The Belmont and Maud Bogart came from wealthy families who included in New York "society". Belmont was a noted Physician and Maud was a well know artist/illustrator. Humphrey was the eldest of three with 2 sisters. There the ideal family picture starts to blur. Belmont was a strict disciplinarian and had no warm relations with his children. Maud barely acknowledged the presence of their children. Humphrey grew up in a dysfunctional family atmosphere that he continuously tried to escape. After serving in the Navy he began a campaign spanning several decades to become a successful actor. Kanfer takes the reader through Bogart’s successes and failures. He describes Humphrey’s attempts at marriage and his meetings with well-known and not so well-know names in the business. I found the book entertaining and fun to read.