Robin: Dave Itzkoff

One of the most poignant events in the entertainment industry in recent times was Robin Williams taking his own life. “Robin” traces the journey of the man – the stand-up comic, the actor and the fallible human – warts and all. From his relatively affluent yet lonely childhood to his days at Julliard, his struggles to establish himself as a stand-up comic, the mad-cap comedy that came to define him to Mork and Mindy and the Hollywood roller-coaster. His personal life: experiments with cocaine and women, the two decades of being sober and enjoying family life, the insecurities, and then the alcoholism are all told in a non-partisan, non-judgmental way. The book is a bit too long for a biography – covering the making of too many movies in detail for example – and thus is not as dramatic as it could have been. However, the honesty of the narration stands out.

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