What a sumptuous coffee table book, luscious in fact. And that's just where I've put it: on my coffee table. The biographical information on Irving Thalberg's life is perhaps a little scant, but I suspect Mark Viera's OTHER book on the man is the one to read for greater details. The joy of this one is the pictorial journey the reader is taken on through Thalberg's legendary work for MGM. The photography, mostly production stills and studio portraiture, is a knockout. I'm compelled to use that work 'luscious' again. It's also refreshing to see Norma Shearer come off far more sympathetically here than she tends to in other books about MGM in the period. Film history has dealt her a real disservice. This was an excellent follow up read, for me, to Scott Eyman's 'Lion of Hollywood', about LB Mayer.