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    Bruce Lee: A Life
    Bruce Lee: A Life
    Bruce Lee: A Life
    Audiobook19 hours

    Bruce Lee: A Life

    Written by Matthew Polly

    Narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The “definitive” (The New York Times) biography of film legend Bruce Lee, who made martial arts a global phenomenon, bridged the divide between eastern and western cultures, and smashed long-held stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans.

    Forty-five years after Bruce Lee’s sudden death at age thirty-two, journalist and bestselling author Matthew Polly has written the definitive account of Lee’s life. It’s also one of the only accounts; incredibly, there has never been an authoritative biography of Lee. Following a decade of research that included conducting more than one hundred interviews with Lee’s family, friends, business associates, and even the actress in whose bed Lee died, Polly has constructed a complex, humane portrait of the icon.

    Polly explores Lee’s early years as a child star in Hong Kong cinema; his actor father’s struggles with opium addiction and how that turned Bruce into a troublemaking teenager who was kicked out of high school and eventually sent to America to shape up; his beginnings as a martial arts teacher, eventually becoming personal instructor to movie stars like James Coburn and Steve McQueen; his struggles as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and frustration seeing role after role he auditioned for go to a white actors in eye makeup; his eventual triumph as a leading man; his challenges juggling a sky-rocketing career with his duties as a father and husband; and his shocking end that to this day is still shrouded in mystery.

    Polly breaks down the myths surrounding Bruce Lee and argues that, contrary to popular belief, he was an ambitious actor who was obsessed with the martial arts—not a kung-fu guru who just so happened to make a couple of movies. This is an honest, revealing look at an impressive yet imperfect man whose personal story was even more entertaining and inspiring than any fictional role he played onscreen.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9781508261056
    Author

    Matthew Polly

    Matthew Polly is the national bestselling author of American Shaolin, Tapped Out, and Bruce Lee. A Princeton University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, he spent two years studying kung fu at the Shaolin Temple in Henan, China. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Esquire, Slate, Playboy, and The Nation. He is a fellow at Yale University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.

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    Reviews for Bruce Lee

    4.5/5

    97 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wow so much I didn’t know about Bruce lee! This book tells it all!
    • 5/5
      Excellent! Very thorough and in depth. I was hooked from the beginning!
    • 5/5
      The best book I’ve ever read about Bruce Lee! Incredible and life changing!
    • 5/5
      Growing up idolising Bruce Lee this book gives some amazing insight to what the man was truly like. Loved it
    • 4/5
      I grew up taking karate and reading black belt magazine and always admired martial arts masters like Bruce. I had watched Dragon and thought this book would be a restoration of that biopic but I was pleasantly surprised to learn a lot more about Bruce, including that he was a complex, fascinating, intelligent person. The book is well researched and paints a picture of the unfortunate racism Bruce had to deal with in Hollywood during his era. It was maddening to hear that he was paid a small fraction of what the white stars in his movies were paid. I recommend this book for anyone interested in the subject.
    • 5/5
      Bruce Lee, was a great actor and a great fighter.a d a great teacher, Bruce Lee, had a beautiful family, his, oldest son, was an actor, his, wife, and daughter, cared about his, dreams, it, saddened me, to have known that while his so was making his, last movie, there, were real inserted in the gun, not blanks, that killed him, Bruce Lee's, spirit, lives, on.
    • 5/5
      Simply the most detailed account of the life of Bruce Lee that you could ever ask for. It shatters widely held misconceptions and beliefs about Bruce to paint a more complete picture of who he was and what he accomplished.
    • 5/5
      Best Bruce Lee biography I've come across in any medium, screen or print.
    • 4/5
      This took me longer to read then expected due to traveling and just being busy. I didn't really care for the writing, but I still liked this book. Learned a lot about Bruce Lee that I didn't know. I've watched a documentary on him long ago, but only remember parts. Lee was a nobody, to a somebody, to a legend.
    • 5/5
      I’m not a huge Bruce Lee fan, never had the iconic poster on my wall, but I always enjoy watching him on screen. Like his good friend Steve McQueen he just commanded every frame he was in, whether stood quietly in the background, or in a blur of hyper-energetic action, you can’t take your eyes off him.Before reading this I only knew the basics of his story, culled from a few magazine articles and a dubious biopic. This exhaustive detailed telling of his life provides a fascinating insight into his short 32 years, and his on-going legacy.From forgotten child-actor, to restaurant busboy, failed student, to gym owner, personal trainer to the stars, and his eventual emergence as a global superstar, it tells the story of a driven conflicted man searching for inner peace. It doesn’t pull any punches when discussing Lee’s flaws, but also highlights his loyalty and caring for those he felt were unfairly treated.One aspect that I’d never thought about was Lee’s approach to race. As an American born Chinese he was never fully accepted by either culture and took it on himself to embrace and teach his techniques and philosophy to whoever wanted to learn irrespective of their background. He was a true multi-cultural man who focused on people not rules.
    • 4/5
      Polly does a good job of sifting rumour from reality, the man from the myth. He still presents an amazing story of an extremely driven—and wildly competitive—man.

      It's a compelling story, and Polly doesn't shy away from Lee's rougher sides, especially his drug use and philandering.

      Great book.