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14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Much more than the Tony Award -winning star of "Gypsy" Jun 16, 2008
By Rachel Clifton
I am neither a parent nor a fan of Broadway, but I still found much in this book to relate to. (I *was* a "Life Goes On" fan.) The way Maile projected so much of her emotion onto one person/idea is something I think many of us do for various defensive and protective reasons. Maile's writing is honest, intimate, smart and funny even when she's revealing her rather painful experiences. It's so compelling that I read it in two sittings. I really hope to read more of her in the not too distant future. I feel like she could write about anything and I'd enjoy it immensely.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Everyone Could Relate To This Excellent Book! Nov 09, 2008
By W. J. Cronauer
"bill_24_24"
Let's face it. We are all fans of someone famous, whether it be Madonna or Brad Pitt or even Joe the Plumber. At times we simply like we put out there for us (whether it be movies or music or TV or performances). At other times, we become obsessed with them and we just know, if they just took the time to get to know us, we will strike up a life-long friendship. Sometimes these idols are all we feel we have to live for.
These modern days of MySpace and email has become the era of anti face-to-face communication, a communication that is personal, yet distant enough. It's an age when we can send a famous person an email and maybe even get a response, yet there are no handshakes and no facial expressions to demonstrate neither flattery or annoyance. It's safe, but can still be painful.
That's why I loved this book so much...because everyone wants to be acknowledged by someone they love, even if it's just one-sided and hidden behind typed words and a faceless identity that we can color exactly as we choose.
I could relate to the author, Maile Hernandez, and her quest to befriend the ultimate and unreachable star, Broadway legend and Tony winner Patti LuPone. I'm a big fan of Patti LuPone--I've seen her perform four (count 'em, FOUR) times on Broadway (twice in Sweeney Todd, and twice in Gypsy), I own a couple of her CDs, I really admire her as a performer and, when my friend recently moved to Connecticut (her mother is actually a cousin of Patti's who hung out with her when she was a kid), I joked that I would visit her just so we could follow Patti LuPone around town.
Mind you, I was kidding about the last part. Really, I couldn't even bring myself to wait at the stage door for an autograph from her because I'm afraid I would throw up on her shoes. But, nonetheless, I'm a fan of Patti LuPone. But I don't live for her, I have no desire to want to befriend her. She's just there, and she's truly great at what she does and that's good enough for me.
Just a few short years ago, Maile Hernandez of Phoenix didn't know in what direction her life was going. She was no longer practicing law (which she hated), she just lost her mother to cancer, and was coping with raising her autistic son Max with her devoted lawyer husband Conrad. She always wanted to be a performer, on any level, but had had to suppress this desire and passion for her family.
Maile also loves Patti LuPone more than any other performer, since the first time she heard her as a teenager. She desires to see her in perform as often as she can--whether it be in Broadway shows in New York City or one-off performances in Virginia or Las Vegas or San Diego. She will go anywhere and see anything (sometimes twice in one weekend) that LuPone is performing in. Maile just feels that special connection with Patti LuPone.
Maile (sometimes signing her name, sometimes anonymously) sends LuPone flowers and other special gifts (like specially made bobbleheads) , she sends her rambling emails that both flatter her idol and bring her up-to-date with every aspect and detail of her life, and she even proposes that they have coffee together. Maile just knows that, if Patti LuPone just took the time to get to know her, they would become confidantes and life-long friends.
Maile appreciates the rare times LuPone personally responds to her emails, and she is devastated when, regarding the majority of her attempts to make personal contact via the web, her emails go unresponded to. She simply cannot understand why she is being ignored and rejected by her idol. After all, they met in passing at a restaurant and LuPone had hugged her several times. So why could Patti possibly be brushing her off?
Regardless of being brushed off by her idol, Maile still attends every performance she can of Patti LuPone. In her extensive travels, she even has a series bizarre and often-hilarious hilarious encounters with other LuPone fans she meets on the Internet.
LuPone also inspires her to try being an actress herself, as Maile becomes a fixture on the local theater scene and expressing herself as she has always wanted to--in performance. Maile also becomes closer and closer to her husband Conrad, who accompanies her on most of her Patti ventures and even becomes a fan himself. She also becomes a better mother, who learns to appreciate every accomplishment (no matter how small and insignificant to the outside world) of her son.
The final chapters on winning opening night tickets for Gypsy on an online auction, only to have them revoked for some mysterious reason (had Miss LuPone read the draft of the book that Maile sent her via email and personally does not want Maile there to spoil her opening night?) --make you feel like your guts have been ripped out and stomped on by the famous feet of your idol. You, the reader, feel just as rejected as Maile.
I loved every page of this book. At first, I must admit that I thought, "Wow, she is really loca for sending Patti LuPone that email and that present. She's simply not living in reality." But as I read further and further, it dawned on me that Maile is just like all of us. She loves and respects a performer so much that all she wants is an acknowledgement that her passion is appreciated by the other person. Hernandez demonstrates in her writing how painful it is to be rebuffed and how bloody difficult, nearly impossible, it is not to take it personally. As much as we don't want to believe it, stars do not (I repeat, DO NOT) live for their fans, but fans often live for their stars. Famous faces can also be harsh, famous voices can also be rude and, most importantly, famous people are not as perfect as we want to see them. Maile Hernandez demonstrates all of these factors so vividly in this outstanding book about the pop culture of celebrity.
I must admit, though all of this is fascinating, my favorite parts of the books are those detailing the relationship between Maile and her husband Conrad--how Patti (no matter how unresponsive she seems to Maile) has brought them closer and closer together.
Maile Hernandez is truly a gifted and entertaining author, and I can't wait for her to publish her next book. But I swear to you, here and now, that no matter how much I loved her first book, I won't (I repeat, WON'T with a capital W) be sending her an email. But, between you and me, if I saw her at book signing, I would kindly ask her to pose for a picture with me. After all, I'm a fan :-)
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Poignant in the light of recent tragedy May 24, 2010
By GKelly
This month, less than two years after the publication of this book, the author's husband, Conrad Hernandez, and 7 year old son, Max, were killed in a car accident that made national headlines. I had already read the book, and after hearing of the accident, I feel like I've lost two people I know, too.
This horrible tragedy makes the story of this book all the more poignant and relevant now. Maile Hernandez was inspired to renew her interest in life outside the home after seeing her lifetime idol, Patti LuPone, in "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway. Maile kept her inspiration alive by following LuPone's performances all around the country.
Maile worshipped LuPone, more for what she stood for than for what she was. LuPone represented strength, talent, determination, and commitment to something larger than yourself. Frustrated and terrified by the daunting task of raising her autistic child, and in the throes of grief from the loss of her mother, Maile made many positive changes in her life thanks to her consistent admiration of LuPone.
She keeps LuPone abreast of her progress as an actor and singer in her own right, her frustrations on the home front, and her personal growth, which she attributes to LuPone's influence. Whether LuPone actually reads all these highly personal letters is unclear. But Maile publishes many of them here, an act of vulnerability and bravery that makes this the most original book I've read in years.
I definitely relate to the obsession with an actor or other public figure, and many of us can. While some may take that obsession in an unhealthy direction, Maile doesn't. She grows and changes, and in the process of finding herself outside the home, she also comes to realize just how much her home and status as a wife and mother really means to her.
I wish Maile continued strength in the wake of the loss of the very individuals her book ultimately focuses on the most - not LuPone, but her own family unit, the backbone of her life. I could not imagine this deep a loss, and hope Maile writes her way through it the way she wrote her way through these unusual, and sometimes hilarious, adventures in following Patti LuPone. Even in the darkest topics Maile writes with a laugh-out-loud sense of humor, and I think that will help carry her through the times ahead, as well as hopefully make way for the writing of another memoir as excellent as this.
Highly, highly recommended.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
A sensitive look at one of Patti LuPone's most ardent fans Jul 17, 2008
By Broadway collie
"Broadway collie"
The Unreachable Star: My Unauthorized Travels with Patti LuPone
This is a well written, sensitive book that provides insight not only about the author, Maile Hernandez, a devoted fan, but also about Tony Award winner Patti LuPone who is currently starring in Gypsy on Broadway. Maile is an attorney living in Arizona with a husband and their autistic son. She shares her feelings for, and her interactions with Broadway Diva Patti LuPone. The book is interesting, funny, insightful, and at the same time sad. Although a story about personal growth, The Unreachable Star expresses the pain that can be felt from rejection by a beloved performer - even from a distance.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
And Read Her Blog, Too! Jul 05, 2010
By Anne Bradley
I have been a fan of Maile's blog for some time, but I hadn't read her book until now. This is because the premise sort of spooked me. Over something like an 18-month period in 2006 and 2007, Maile developed a "fascination - at times star-struck enthrallment" with Broadway performer Patti LuPone. She travelled around the country, spending tons of money to see LuPone perform. She wrote fan letters. She bought flowers and other gifts. It seemed a bit stalker-y to me and I, perhaps, didn't really want to know that side of her.
Since the deaths of her husband, Conrad, and son, Max, she has been blogging regularly. Extremely raw and personal entries that feel exactly like reading a private journal. How utterly ridiculous for me not to have read her book. And I am so glad that I did, because this is the best I am ever going to know Conrad. And it was Conrad who put the fandom into perspective for me:
"You've seen how many of Patti's shows, twelve? You've hardly ever talked to her. You've written fan letters, to an e-mail address that she set up, for that purpose. You've never remotely threatened her. You've never talked about weird sexual fantasies in your letters to her. You've never gone to her hotel room, or asked to go to her hotel room. You've never asked her to go to your hotel room. You've never called her up or called her people up, asking to talk to her, or gone to her house. Have you ever even contemplated doing any of those things?"
No. Of course not.
Over the course of the book, Maile began performing again. And then she began writing in earnest. And her stories of those struggles and triumphs, along with her stories of Max beginning to come out of his shell..are just like reading her blog. I loved it.
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