Robin - Dave Itzoff

Don't get me wrong - I think Robin Williams was a magician, a one of a kind comedian who had the ability to make us shake with laughter at times and still show us a bit of his vulnerable side.  This biography chronicles his life, from growing up reasonably well off, to making his name in comedy clubs in San Francisco and LA, his Mork and Mindy days, then finding fame in movies. 

I just found that reading this book felt like reading a sports or political memoir, with lots of changes of scenes and characters but little of the spark of the real person, that the written descriptions of them is  unable to capture their charisma, to show us how they moved in the world and interact with others.  Maybe it was a little bit because I knew that this particular story was going to end in tragedy, that we were all touched by Robin Williams and the laughter he had given us over the years, that we all felt sad that he struggled to find his own peace. 2/5