Although the focus of this book is on the federal government’s (well, part of it) seemingly inexplicable efforts to “get” Charlie Chaplin, it is also a really good biography of a great entertainer who was a very complex person.
It is a true shame that Chapin was effectively exiled from the U.S. for that last quarter of his life, and one can only wonder what he might have done if he had remained here. It’s a shame Charlie did not fight it, because he probably would have won. It’s also pretty disgusting how he was treated by the press about his supposed lack of patriotism, after having raised money for war bonds (and bought them himself) and after his sons had served in the war.
If there’s a nit about this book, it is that it broadly, simplistically, and repeatedly claims “conservatives” were against Chaplin. Many conservatives at the time wanted him here. Moreover, as our current times demonstrate, efforts to control thoughts and dialogue are not limited to one political persuasion. Intelligence services have been largely a disgrace for decades, misdirected and misused across the political spectrum for purposes far beyond their legitimate purview.
J. Edgar Hoover was a disaster, but even he was not the moving force here.
That nit aside, it’s a good book. The narration is fine.