Belushi: A Biography

I was in the library a week before surgery looking for light fiction to tide me over a week of recuperation, when I saw "Belushi" sitting on a new non-fiction shelf and picked it up on a whim. I never got to the fiction. Well-collected and organized first-person interview quotes, personal photographs, behind-the-scenes stories...this is a wonderful, yet cautionary, tale of the 1970's in America. I laughed out loud; tears came to my eyes. Thank you, authors. Disclaimer: John Belushi was born in the same hospital (a few years later) as I was; one of his father's restaurants was two blocks from where I did some of my growing up; I was in Second City audiences while John was there; I've watched SNL faithfully since its first year; I saw even John's bad movies. Prejudiced I am-this is still an admirable, accurate, caring biography.

Beautifully done...and now I really know, right from the start, how wonderfully talented John was. If you lived his fast paced life with tremendous pressures and being the best he could possibly be, you'd probably be hitting some drugs, too. Lets focus on who the man really was and about all of his close friends who really loved him. Judy Belushi Pisano does an excellent job putting this book together. What a talent she is a fantastic achievement. I couldn't put this book down and I have the rings on my ass to prove it !!! Now John would have appreciated that comment !

I grew up on "Saturday Night Live" and my favorite comedy is NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE. I remember the day John Belushi died and I've read WIRED at least three times. I've also read and reread SATURDAY NIGHT: A BACKSTAGE HISTORY OF "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" by Doug Hill & Jeff Weingrad and LIVE FROM NEW YORK: AN UNCENSORED HISTORY OF "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" by Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller. I also read SAMURAI WIDOW by Judy Jacklin Belushi. So how could there be anything left to say? I hesitated about buying BELUSHI but, after I picked it up and started thumbing through it, I couldn't put it down. And I couldn't put it down after I got it home. The stories are told by the people who were at ground zero in Belushi's life and the photos are new and personal. This is a great book for the person discovering what a stormy genius John Belushi was and for the long-time fan who thought he or she knew everything about him. And BELUSHI is also for everyone else in between. As Senator John Blutarsky once said, "NOTHING IS OVER UNTIL WE DECIDE IT IS!"

John Belushi has been, I think, one of the most misunderstood late celebrities in recent memory. This was due in large part to a certain book by a certain reporter, whose name I won't speak here. Judy Belushi Pisano went a long way towards setting the record straight in "Samurai Widow," letting the public into her grieving process and the aftermath of John's death in 1982. Now we've come full circle with this wonderful biography of the man himself, told by those who knew him best. John was many things to many people, and all facets of his life and personality are talked about in this book, often with amazing candor. I also have to comment on the wealth of photos included in the book, many from the private collections of Judith and the Belushi family. They're a real treat to see (John was a very cute little boy) and add to the sense that this is a very personal biography. Fans of John will love this book. It reveals the funny, kind, infuriating, generous person that we as his fans, who could only know and love him through his work, always knew he really was.

This book is full of wonderful photographs, it amazes me how many of them make you instantly smile. Each chapter of the book takes you through a chapter of John's life told by those who knew him, loved him, and worked with him. Reading this book gave me the opportunity to listen in on all of John's friends and family sharing all of their experiences. Hearing so many different ways to describe the events in John's life, through so many different eyes, allows us to finally begin to understand what kind of person he really was. I knew all sorts of facts about John Belushi. But, now after this book, I feel as I though I actually know the man. It is this connection that inspires me to work even harder to keep the memory of John Belushi alive. Matt [...]