The Garner Files

A Memoir

De: James Garner, Jon Winokur

Narrado por: Michael Kramer

After suffering physical abuse at the hands of his stepmother, James Garner left home at fourteen. He became Oklahoma's first draftee of the Korean War and was awarded with two Purple Hearts before returning to the United States and settling in Los Angeles to become an actor. Working alongside some of the most renowned celebrities, including Julie Andrews, Marlon Brando, and Clint Eastwood, Garner became a star in his own right, despite struggles with stage fright and depression.

In The Garner Files, this revered actor and quintessential self-made man recalls "trying to decipher" William Wyler with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, breaking Doris Day's ribs, having a "heart-to-heart and eyeball-to-eyeball" with Steve McQueen, being "a card-carrying liberal---and proud of it," and much more. This audiobook features an introduction by Julie Andrews read by Wanda McCaddon.

©2011 MGB Productions, Inc. (P)2011 Tantor

Poor narration; good stories from Garner

I was entertained throughout my life by Garner; I loved hearing his stories! I laughed and remembered him as I experienced him, and was surprised at his admissions. The narrator was not very good. If they thought he sounded like Garner they were wrong and he also read quite flat and monotone—I had to pace myself to listen and only did so because of the content. Normally I listen for hours while I work but I could only take a couple and stopped. Julie Andrews would have done a better job.

Fascinating life! A good read!

Where does The Garner Files rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I found this book refreshing, brutally honest -ie, his love/hate relationship with Steve McQueen and unique. It is in unique in the sense and unlike other bios, that at the end of the book, his significant friends, family and loved ones share a heartfelt anecdote about Garner in their own words. It was so touching to hear how his wife Lois recounts the day they first met, (which made me smile as her recollection was slightly different and more detailed than Garner's one). He truly loved his wife. He also lists and recounts his experiences on every feature, TV show, mini series and made for Tv movie at the end of the bio.

What did you like best about this story?

I've always been interested in James Garner and had the pleasure of meeting him a few times, but as he was such a private man, I really didn't know much about him. I learned of his impoverished childhood and how he faced great adversity as a child and into his adolescence. This built his strong, macho, grounded and loyal character. I especially loved his honesty in this book. He raves about working with Julie Andrews and my personal favourite Doris Day. Although he doesn't go into too much detail about the two movies he made with Doris. The only chapter I skipped was his chapter on Golf.

A bit disappointing.

Learned more about his love for golf and auto racing than I cared to know.

Regular guy…

I’ve been a fan of James Garner all my life and I appreciate his ‘everyman’ attitude. He’s just a regular guy enjoying his life and just getting along. :::Me laughing:::
I strongly believe that he wouldn’t have been able to do even half of the golfing, never mind the travel or meeting interesting people, if he wasn’t a successful actor.
I wish he would have been able to read his own book.
I appreciate his candor in writing this book so we get the real man with all his shiny goodness along with the contradictions. We are ALL imperfect human beings. We ALL do some smart things and some really dumb things. We ALL have our challenges, often starting with our parents’ or family’s messed up lives. If we’re smart or lucky, we get past a messed up childhood. If we’re smart or lucky or willing to work hard we can end up a lot more successful than where we started out.

Almost didn’t finish it

James Garner was always one of our favorites and I’d been wanting to read his biography for a long time. The narrative style really a turn off - the blasé monotone was almost more than we could bear. But we were intrigued by the story and we sped up the narration about 10%. We’re glad we stuck with it.