Body and Soul: The Story of John Garfield

"Body and Soul" is an interesting and engrossing bio of one of my favorite actors who,sadly, is underrated or even forgotten by most. This is much better than the more recent bio, "He Ran All the Way." Swindle paints a complete portrait of the actor unlike the 2004 book which reduces Garfield to a bit of a cartoon. Swindle provides insightful stories of Garfield's life including his colleagues and family. Especially moving are the last few chapters dealing with HUAC, detailing not only Garfield's struggles but also of his friends including Elia Kazan and Clifford Odets. The book also provides large excerpts from Garfield's HUAC testimony. The book is very fair in assessing Garfield's career and personal life. Seek this bio out rather than Robert Nott's Garfield book. It benefits from having been written in 1975 when many of Garfield's peers were still alive and blacklisting was still painfully fresh in Hollywood's history. Frankly, this is just a better written and more complete biography.