Book: Audition - an autobiography by Barbara Walters

No.1 Bestseller in NYT's for two consecutive weeks. That is something.

Normally, I am not the one who goes for bestsellers, howmuchever best selling they may be. 'Coz I just wait till all that buzz settles down. By that time I would have received some 'one-on-one' opinion about that book also. That's make it worth every penny I spend on it besides the sheer pleasure it offers. But with Audition it's the other way round.

It was kind of an impulsive buy. I was little fascinated by the title itself - Audition - something that's quite 'out-of-place' as far as naming an autobiography is concerned. Once the book reached my hands I got into an intuitive mood, to some extent provided by the look and feel of the book: That this one is going to be an amazing read. And it indeed was.

Barbara Walters's Audition makes you feel the personal (its an auto-biography, I do remember)element in it, more vividly and intensely. You feel like you are indeed one of the invitees to her life, private and public. You belong. You relate. And herein lies the secret why this book has sold more than 425,000 copies at press time itself.

Walters's writes about her career, leaving NBC for ABC, mentally handicapped sister, her relationship with her father and foster-daughter Jackie, her childhood and failed marriages, her interviews with world leaders and men (and women) in the news and so on. There are shocks and surprises too. She tell us about her 2 year affair, some thirty years ago, with an Afro-American senator by the name Edward Brooke.

Her narrative style is magical. She has been quite frank and free while discussing about her life and the impact it had on her mind. This is so remarkable of an autobiography. And this does has its 'effects' on readers' minds also: some passages may leave you emotionally drained - like when she tells about her sister and foster-daughter, failed marriages etc. These narratives are distintive for their psychological insights also.

To sum it up, Audition is indeed a much much readable auto-bio. Worth your time and money. I simply love reading it again!

Off the pad: While asked about why she gave such an odd-title for an auto-bio she's said to have told that she been auditioning all her life. That's quite an explanation; of an odd-kind.