Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
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Born in a small Austrian town in 1947, a year of famine, he was the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star. By the age of 21, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr Universe. Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.
But that was only the beginning. The Terminator spawned numerous sequels and made him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, as he had a series of hit films including Predator, Total Recall, True Lies and Twins. He married Maria Shriver, becoming part of the Kennedy clan, while going on to become the Republican governor of California, where he led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters and political turmoil.
It is the greatest immigrant success story of our time. His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages. Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice. Here is Arnold, with total recall.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster UK, UK ed. edition (23 May 2013) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 656 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 9781849839730 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1849839730 |
| Dimensions | 13 x 4.5 x 19.7 cm |
by robbie p
I dare you to read this without hearing Arnold narrating. Great read up until the political bit,the series kinda gives you the surprise bits,but still a good read
by S. Smith
From such humble beginnings, and with a lot of help along the way, it is amazing to see what one man can achieve. This book explains how Arnie managed to become the greatest body-builder of all time, a box-office topping mega-star and Governor of one of the largest economies in the world. Along the way he helped to elevate body-building to the world stage and changed the face of Hollywood action films, perhaps forever.
It is an incredible story, written in a down-to-earth style and containing numerous inspiring stories and philosophies. Arnold is clearly a hugely intelligent person and it is amazing to see just how clever his approach has been towards all of the goals in his life. This could almost be a self help book, with a simple philosophy behind it: work hard (put in the reps), surround yourself with experts, always be prepared to learn and be a person that others want to be around.
The autobiography itself starts with a brief intro his childhood but gets into the swing of things when we get to his body-building days. This is by far the best part of the book, you really get a sense of the excitement that he had during those early days, his boundless energy and his openness to meeting new people and taking on new opportunities. It is beyond inspiring, when you read those chapters it makes you want to leap up and start building something. As the book goes on though, and moves into the movie phase of his career, it becomes more diffuse, and it becomes apparent that the latter part of the book is tackling events that are perhaps too recent in history to allow Arnold to give the full story. Or perhaps it is the case that they involve people who may still be useful to Arnold and he doesn’t want to annoy them!
At the very end, it becomes increasing clear that this book, just like other parts of Arnold’s life, is being carefully managed to dodge the issues that he doesn’t want to talk about (steroid abuse and womanising have but fleeting mentions in these pages). That is of course fine, it is his autobiography as all, but don’t come into this book expecting a warts and all tale. This is a heavily edited life story, written by someone who doubtlessly still has major life goals to achieve and an agenda to push. The body building section covers a period in his life that is perhaps far enough away that he can talk about people who are long gone, be more candid, and blame the younger, more silly Arnold, but the later we get into his life the more careful the autobiography becomes. The political section reads as a run-down of every measure passed, with credit given to every single person who helped and as a result the last 1/8 of the book becomes very dull very quickly. I understand that Arnold is probably talking about people who still have a large bearing on his current life and future aims, but it doesn’t make for a good read. Similarly his affairs and the situation with his secret son are mentioned, but they are written so delicately, as if the whole section is written with the knowledge that his ex-wife may be reading. Again this is totally understandable as Arnold clearly wanted to get back together with her at the time of the book being written, however just be aware that the further you get into this book, the less it is an autobiography and the more it becomes a tool for Arnold.
All of this said though, these are issues which blight any auto-biography and the first half of the book more than makes up for the eventual descent into self-service. The important thing here is whether it is any good as a whole and whether it is worth a read. To both of those questions I can give an emphatic yes, the first half of this book is perhaps the most engaging and inspiring autobiography I have ever read and the second half is entertaining enough!
by oto_jo
This was a book club choice. Never, ever would I have picked this book up left to my own devices. I groaned when we agreed to do it and thought it was going to be 600 odd pages of tough going which would need some skim-reading to survive. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I found the book completely engrossing. I sat reading it all day one weekend and spent the rest of the week racing to bed to carry on.
Pre-reading the book, I was utterly dismissive of this man. Post-reading it, I am uplifted and inspired and a total admirer. It is an inspirational book on all levels.
I always looked at body-building as rather pointless and body-builders as having very ugly bodies. I was not interested. His description of that world and his part in it was fascinating and I have now bought ‘Pumping Iron’ to learn more.
I dismissed out of hand, Conan the Barbarian as a joke. Under no circumstances would I have considered seeing it back in the 80s or now. Reading the chapter about its making changed my mind. I have just bought the DVD because the film sounds fascinating and ground-breaking – (maybe not his acting though!). I am also considering getting some more of his films to view as well. (I have seen very few of them.) What a turn-around! This man is a salesman par excellance!
I think what I found so appealing about this book is that to my mind Arnie presents a very honest (al beit sanitized) view of himself. Ok it is, as one reviewer here says, short on salacious detail but I kind of think that is because Arnie as a personality does not dwell on things. He is very clear that he is a very optimistic, positive thinker. He makes mistakes and he moves on. Because of this trait, in his acknowledgements, he also is very clear that he had forgotten lots and needed the help of many people to remember again. I believed him. I also think that he avoided salacious detail because he did not want to hurt other people and wanted to respect their right to privacy too and I can respect that.
Arnie is quite clear about being machine-like in pursuing his goals. He will also do whatever it takes to win. And yet while he is clearly ruthless, he also comes across as a man of high intelligence, a man of principles, and of clear vision. He is very clear about how he became successful: what attributes he had and what mechanisms he put in place to achieve what he achieved. The overriding message was, set a goal, learn everything you need to learn to achieve what you want to do and then work hard to do it (‘reps reps reps’). No magic formulae, or luck. This man worked for what he got and he does not pretend otherwise.
The other thing that surprised me about this book was just how important family was to Arnie. For someone so grounded in himself, and without dwelling on it, one got the sense of a man who really loves his family. For me, I would also call this book a love story. He clearly loves Maria, and I finished the book feeling very, very sad and let down that they broke up. I am with Arnie in very much hoping they get back together again, because the way Arnie writes about their relationship, they were a wonderful team and for me, it felt like a tragic end to a very special relationship. Of course that is his view, maybe Maria would say her years with him were terrible, and she was often alone, and resented the affairs. But I looked at the family photos and they all seemed so very happy together. I could not understand how she could walk away from such an extraordinary man with so much vision and so many worthwhile principles that he was willing to work for.
Another reviewer on this site said this book was overlong and needed editing particularly the political bits. I cannot disagree more. I found Arnie’s period as governor to be fascinating. I had no idea about the problems of the political system in the US. It was fascinating to read about his courage in fighting for the things he believed in and his determination against all odds to bring change to California in every sphere of public need. Gosh! His energy was infectious, his ability to choose great people to work with him said much for his perceptiveness and wisdom about people, his lack of respect for partisan politics was inspiring and the only responsible way to be. If I were an American I would beg him to run for presidency and I would vote for him!
Fabulous, fabulous read. I will be telling anyone I know that they need to read this book. I wish some of our polis would also pick it up. I wonder now what is left for Arnie. I can imagine fixing on the next goal after achieving so much must be a huge question in his mind.