Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
by Anthony Rapp
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Book Reviews of Without You: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and the Musical Rent
Book Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
This book brought me to tears several times. There were countless times where i literally had to push the book away from me mid-sentence. I couldn't continue reading because my eyes were just full of tears. This book is just so special and raw and brutally honest, I read it all in one sitting, something I only do when a book completely captures me. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Do yourselves a favour and read this book.Book Review: Full of Heart
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a very honest, touching memoir. For a fan of the show Rent, it was especially moving to learn more about Jonathon Larson and how the show came to be. I so wish I could have been a fly on the wall to experience those first days of the show and knowing Jonathon. What an amazing story!!! I found Anthony's writing about his relationship with his mother raw, honest and touching. There were moments that I felt as if I was in the room. Not being gay, I find it hard to comment on the gay aspects of the book, but I admire his honesty and I imagine his words may be helpful to other young men dealing with their lives as gay men. The book reads as if Anthony opened his heart and poured it onto the page.
Book Review: Honest and Understanding
Summary: 5 Stars
I believe this is a book for a troubled soul who's been through AIDS and cancer. I couldn't help but feel the same fear from when I was only 11 years old. My mother is a 9-year survivor of Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and I guess I'm lucky. It must be harsh to see someone you know going through both AIDS and cancer, both can be a pretty big blow. I believe that love heals a troubled soul, it really does. A remarkable book. Book Review: Insightful and vivid autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the audio version of this book a few months ago and I enjoyed it immensely. It is exactly what the title says it is: a memoir of Anthony Rapp's life as it has unfolded so far, focusing on his relationship with his mother as she fights a several year-long battle with terminal cancer. Her final illness occurs at the same time Anthony is starring as Mark Cohen in the musical Rent, so there is quite a bit of information on what is going on behind the scenes there, too. Just be aware that this is more of an autobiography with a lot of personal introspection than a book of little-known trivia about "Rent".
The information about Anthony's childhood and adolescence is particularly moving and vivid, as it seems his entire family has a penchant for both denial and bottling up anger and grievances until they reach a boiling point and then explode - sometimes after months or years of fuming. He charts this history back to his maternal grandmother, whom he never knew well but feared all the same, from stories his mother told him about her violent outbursts.
Rapp talks about how he wants his mother to accept his bisexuality before she dies, and he has a good deal of material about conversations that they have together in which they dance around as well as actually confront the subject, but it also seems the author himself is in some denial about his true sexual identity. Throughout the book he often talks about how he is attracted to women as well as men, but it seems that with the exception of some adolescent dalliances in high school, almost all of his relationships are long term and all of them are with men, not women. Even in the postscript, Rapp talks about how he and his male partner are living in New York City and hoping to adopt a child. Other than this one issue, though, the author seems to have very good insight into his and his somewhat dysfunctional family's behavior, and he is brutally honest about the various aspects of his life.
The parts about the musical "Rent" itself are very good too. The author talks about the audition process, the evolution of "Rent" from workshop to Broadway musical, his personal impressions of Jonathan Larson, the author of "Rent", about how he found out about Larson's death and how it impacted him, about the first performance of the musical after Larson died and the resulting improvisation, the subsequent success of the musical, and the loss of fast friendships as one by one various members of the original cast left the show for other opportunities. I highly recommend it.
Book Review: Highly recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
I was only peripherally aware of Rent's first splash because of the media storm surrounding Johnathan Larson's untimely death. I was halfway through the DVD when I immediately started looking up the cast and found out about Anthony's book. I ordered it on the spot and stayed up all night to finish it the day it arrived.
The honesty is brutal. He pulls no punches on himself, his feelings, or his behaviour although I have a feeling he pulled a few concerning some of his ex-lovers. I can only imagine that the writing of this was both cathartic and nerveracking. Nothing is held back.
I agree with another poster that I would like to know more about how Anthony became a child actor, but the book never claimed to be about that. It covers exactly what it says it does. The evolution of Rent from Workshop, to Broadway Hit, to successful film; and his own personal experiences dealing with his love life and the loss of his mother.
I would recommend this book to anyone who feels that life's challenges should be met head on rather than swept under the rug.