HOW MUCH IS Too Much?

One of the things I enjoy about shipboard cruising is the time I end up with to read. Just seems there’s never enough hours in the day to catch up on all the books I want to dive into. But knowing I‘ll be away from the craziness and able to relax a bit, I load up my Kindle reader with 8 or 9 books and consume ‘em while at sea. (Oh yeah, I know some of you are saying, “But don’t you miss the tactile sense of holding an actual book when you read?” And you know what? I do. But not to the point of being able to tote a thin, light reader about rather that filling my suitcase with big, thick books. It’s a matter of practicality.)
Now, because I’m working on preproduction elements of the movie we’re looking to produce based on my book about the celebrated Ruth Lowe (“Until I Smile At You”), including writing a script draft, I’ve been reading up on the life and times of Frank Sinatra, who was a pal of Ruth’s. I’m a Sinatra fan and I’ve read several biographies written by friends and associates of the man, including books by both of his daughters. But one I’d missed was by my fellow novelist Spencer Leigh, “Frank Sinatra: An Extraordinary Life”. Spencer’s a guy who appreciates researching and then sharing just about everything there is to know about the subject he’s writing on. In this case, it includes all sorts of historical facts concerning Sinatra’s progenitors and their lives in Italy and then in America.
If this kind of detail makes a significant impact on the star being immortalized, well, I suppose it’s fair game to include it, if only in passing. But knowing how readers are lacking in time and reading less these days, I tend to keep a pretty tight focus on “what matters”. Spencer seems to want to catalogue every album Frank made with details on virtually each song. Some of this is interesting, I suppose, but it really does end up being a bit irritating. I mean, even Frank wouldn’t want to know all there is to know about each and every song he’s singing in laborious detail.
When I wrote “Until I Smile At You” about Ruth, I figured there was plenty to reveal about her life in Toronto, Chicago and New York, as well as on the road with her family and later with her “Mellowdears” band mates. I took the attitude that her European ancestors who came before did not contribute to her amazing showbiz career, so why go there? I’m comfortable that I made the right decision, and certainly several readers have sent me messages confirming this. But I’ve also tried to consider what was going on musically at the time that Ruth’s song appeared: what other songs were scheming for the public’s tastebuds that even collectively could not defeat the incredible popularity of “I’ll Never Smile Again”? Now, that, to me, is interesting and adds depth to Ruth Lowe’s accomplishments.
To each his own, I suppose.

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