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John Connolly
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he: A Novel Kindle Edition

by John Connolly (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 519 ratings
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An extraordinary recreation of one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel & Hardy.

Winner of the 2017 Ryan Tubridy Show Listener's Choice Award at the Irish Book Awards.

John Connolly recreates the golden age of Hollywood for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity and the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists.

An extraordinary reimagining of the life of one of the greatest screen comedians the world has ever known: a man who knew both adoration and humiliation; who loved, and was loved in turn; who betrayed, and was betrayed; who never sought to cause pain to others, yet left a trail of affairs and broken marriages in his wake . . .

And whose life was ultimately defined by one relationship of such tenderness and devotion that only death could sever it: his partnership with the man he knew as Babe.

he is Stan Laurel.
But he did not really exist. Stan Laurel was a fiction.

With he, John Connolly recreates the golden age of Hollywood for an intensely compassionate study of the tension between commercial demands and artistic integrity, the human frailties behind even the greatest of artists, and one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history: Laurel & Hardy.

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  1. Print length
    479 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Hodder & Stoughton
  5. Publication date
    August 24, 2017
  6. File size
    774 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Ambitious . . . Written in spare, fractured prose from the perspective of a narrator who seems to be reporting from inside Laurel's mind . . . Evoke[s] the style of Samuel Beckett."―Jason Zinoman, The New York Times

"John Connolly's he is a brilliant view of a comic's life. It is a biographical look at Laurel and Hardy, warts and all, with liberties taken. The first chapter seizes the reader by the end of the first page and never lets go. A new type of story told by a masterful mystery writer. 'A' all the way."―Philip Zozzaro, Seattle Book Review

"[John Connolly's he] rings a Joycean tone, and the novel has lovely poetical flourishes . . . The novel, copiously researched, captures Hollywood's Golden Age in flickering moments and flashing epiphanies that can be returned to, such is their appeal. For fans of the era and the beloved comedy team, this is a moving and thrilling read."
―Lara Rae, Winnipeg Free Press

"He is a labor of love . . . This is a work of fiction, based on facts, and Connolly projects, extrapolates, and takes chances."
―Joe Hartlaub, bookreporter

"With only the pronouns of 'he' or 'him,' author John Connolly reimagines [comedian Stan] Laurel in both abstract and three-dimensional ways, getting to the soul of Laurel, the comic, the multi-married, forever-in-debt-with-alimony and alcoholic . . . Gracefully written."
―Oline Cogdill, Associated Press

"The subject of this extraordinary novel is Stan Laurel . . . The novel cycles back and forth across the comic's long and often harrowing career--drinking, womanizing, seven marriages to four women. He reminisces on his successes and failures but most of all on the loss of Babe, his mate, who completed a sad man who otherwise never felt whole . . . Exceptional. Who wouldn't want to read this lovely book?"
―David Keymer, Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Connolly's tender double portrait [of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy] is a love story about the astoundingly loyal friendship between these two quiet, immensely talented yet equally troubled men as they navigated the corrupt studio system, their failed marriages, the invasive press, and battles with their own demons . . . The golden age of Hollywood is vividly and authentically drawn, with asides about the gossip, bed-hopping, drug use, untimely deaths, and subsequent obituaries that began with the phrase, 'Formerly in Pictures.' This dazzling and altogether wonderful book sets a new standard for the biographical historical novel."
―Booklist (Starred Review)

"The life and art of Stan Laurel, from vaudeville and silent movies to the talkies and old age, is explored in this artful novel . . . The book's great love story is that of Laurel mourning and yearning for his late partner [Oliver Hardy], still writing routines for the two of them, rehearsing them by himself. It's the best tribute to this novel that by the end of it you feel you have been given the full texture of a life."
―Kirkus Reviews

"Anybody who absolutely loved Laurel and Hardy will be thrilled with this masterpiece from John Connolly. This is a stunning work that places readers into the Golden Age of Hollywood where they meet, greet, and embrace a duo who built a comedic partnership that ended up lasting long after they departed this world."
―Suspense Magazine

"In short, poetic chapters, Connolly reveals a complicated artist journeying from vaudeville to silent film to starring in talking pictures . . . This story of good, bad, and necessary choices speaks to the triumphs and heartbreaks experienced by everyone treading this stage called life."
―Pop Culture Nerd

"A gorgeous character study and an unforgettable love story."
―Elaine Petrocelli, Book Passage

"This is a book about love: love of women, love of men, love of art, love of comedy . . . What catapults the reader straight into Hollywood's Golden Age is the enormous amount of research and passion that lies behind he. When those researched details coalesce, a world of Dickens-like detail leaps off the page."―Martina Evans, The Irish Times

"There is little here of the lovable innocence of [Stan Laurel's] screen persona. Instead we are shown a troubled, difficult man who drinks heavily, screws up his relationships with women, and broods about the unmatchable genius of Charlie Chaplin . . . Laurel is never referred to by name, only as 'he,' but every other man in the book has his name written out in full. Initially disconcerting, the usage soon comes to seem no more than a further reflection of the originality of this fine novel."―Nick Rennison, The Sunday Times

"It's not often you get an evocation of a friendship so deep and tender between two men in fiction . . . A wonderful story of love, of unabiding loyalty."―Declan Burke, RTE

"Delightfully eccentric . . . In he, the lonely comic [Stan Laurel] is haunted by Oliver Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and ghosts of lovers past."―James Kidd, South China Morning Post

"John Connolly has skillfully recreated the unseen side of a perceived golden age and yet it is also a compassionate study of the tensions between commercial demands and popularity and the almost unattainable artistic integrity gifted people destroy themselves in pursuit of; for all that it is no less a love letter to one of the most enduring and beloved partnerships in cinema history."―Malachy Coney

"Rewarding and uplifting. Connolly has stepped outside the crime genre to publish a literary novel of real merit."―Nudge Books

"John Connolly's new book is a fascinating look at the Golden Age of Hollywood through the eyes of one of the finest comedians ever to grace the silver screen. This is a book full of history, full of sadness and joy, replete with fascinating characters. Connolly's greatest achievement here is that he makes you forget that this is fiction, that this comes from his imagination. Connolly makes you believe that this is what Stan Laurel must have been like because it is a book that speaks true. I applaud him for that. Read it now."―Shots Magazine

"An invaluable feel for a period and a fascinating, if awkward, personality. Writing the story as a novel rather than just a straight biography gives the tale an extra layer of humanity and reality."―Crime Time

"Charts the evolution of comedy in Hollywood during its first half century with a keen eye to detail . . . An entertaining account of early-twentieth-century celebrity and the two men whose lives to posterity 'have become reflections, each of the other, an infinity of echoes.'"―Huston Gilmore, The Daily Express

"In his latest stand-alone novel, he, Connolly fulfills a ten-year passion to present the life of one of our most beloved icons, Stan Laurel. Fans of Connolly will be awed at this new literary work in a very different voice."
―Richard Klinzman, The Florida Times-Union

About the Author

John Connolly is author of the Charlie Parker mysteries, The Book of Lost Things, the Samuel Johnson novels for young adults, and, with his partner, Jennifer Ridyard, is the coauthor of the Chronicles of the Invaders series. His debut, Every Dead Thing, swiftly launched him into the top rank of thriller writers, and all his subsequent novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers. He was the first non-American writer to win the US Shamus award, and the first Irish writer to be awarded the Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06X4172DT
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton (August 24, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 24, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 774 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 479 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 519 ratings

About the author

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John Connolly

John Connolly

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I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1968 and have, at various points in his life, worked as a journalist, a barman, a local government official, a waiter and a "gofer" at Harrods department store in London. I studied English in Trinity College, Dublin and journalism at Dublin City University, subsequently spending five years working as a freelance journalist for The Irish Times newspaper, to which I continue to contribute, although not as often as I would like. I still try to interview a few authors every year, mainly writers whose work I like, although I've occasionally interviewed people for the paper simply because I thought they might be quirky or interesting. All of those interviews have been posted to my website, http://www.johnconnollybooks.com.

I was working as a journalist when I began work on my first novel. Like a lot of journalists, I think I entered the trade because I loved to write, and it was one of the few ways I thought I could be paid to do what I loved. But there is a difference between being a writer and a journalist, and I was certainly a poorer journalist than I am a writer (and I make no great claims for myself in either field.) I got quite frustrated with journalism, which probably gave me the impetus to start work on the novel. That book, Every Dead Thing, took about five years to write and was eventually published in 1999. It introduced the character of Charlie Parker, a former policeman hunting the killer of his wife and daughter. Dark Hollow, the second Parker novel, followed in 2000. The third Parker novel, The Killing Kind, was published in 2001, with The White Road following in 2002. In 2003, I published my fifth novel - and first stand-alone book - Bad Men. In 2004, Nocturnes, a collection of novellas and short stories, was added to the list, and 2005 marked the publication of the fifth Charlie Parker novel, The Black Angel. In 2006, The Book of Lost Things, my first non-mystery novel, was published.

Charlie Parker has since appeared in five additional novels: The Unquiet, The Reapers (where he plays a secondary role to his associates, Louis and Angel), The Lovers, The Whisperers, and The Burning Soul. The eleventh Charlie Parker novel, The Wrath of Angels, will be available in the UK in August 2012 and in the US in January 2013.

The Gates launched the Samuel Johnson series for younger readers in 2009, followed by Hell's Bells (UK)/The Infernals (US) in 2011. A third Samuel Johnson novel should be finished in 2013.

I am also the co-editor, with fellow author Declan Burke, of Books to Die For, an anthology of essays from the world's top crime writers in response to the question, "Which book should all lovers of crime fiction read before they die?" Books to Die For is available in the UK as of August 2012, and will be available in the US in October 2012.

I am based in Dublin but divide my time between my native city and the United States, where each of my novels has been set.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
519 global ratings
Stan Laurel: Part Fact, part Speculation, part Passive Adulterer
3 Stars
Stan Laurel: Part Fact, part Speculation, part Passive Adulterer
Fiction based upon FACT? Stupid idea. The use of the F-word was a bit too much. Obviously Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were fictional characters and we would love to be able to assume that they were what they were on screen but they were not as most actors are not. This book is partially fact and partially speculation. Putting words into the mouths of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is a bit much but obviously you have to write some dialogue move the storyline along. So you have to assume that court records are one thing, the conversations amongst people is speculation since most of the people written of are of course deceased. What did bother me in the audible book version I read is the inability are the narrator to pronounce the last name Laemmle (Lemlee) as spelled, he pronounced it Lemel. Also the fate and the reasons for the deaths of some of the people that were known by the two man was pure speculation. Listen up Three Stooges fans. The author makes the assumption that since Curly Howard was hit so many times that is what caused his strokes and his death through a small bleed in his brain. Everyone knows that Curly Howard was a hard partier and had a terrible blood pressure problem, from what I understand the book does mention this as well, but does stress the idea that Moe hitting his brother brought on his death which is not fair. The death of Ted Healy also bothered me because it is pure speculation about who killed him. Once again he dresses up the Wallace Beery, mob connection. Maybe it occurred maybe it didn't but as far as I know there's no support and this is pure speculation. Get me back to Stan. The author portrays Stan as a passive adulterer. Do we know this is true? There's no doubt that he was married multiple times. Readers must be warned that the author, like most movies these days, bump back and forth between the last days of Stan and his early days which drives readers nuts. Let's just deal with chronology without having to bump back and forth and back and forth. I have read in one interview that Stan did not want a movie made about his life and of course one has recently been released on DVD. If one is made off this book it is going to have to be sliced and diced so as not to embarrass the man that loves. Because this is not a lovely man but an insecure adulterer who really doesn't care about anybody but himself and perhaps his partner Oliver Hardy. Was Hal Roach a jerk? Perhaps. You will read in this book about one of The Little Rascals mothers having a fling with Oliver Hardy for a short time. Oliver Hardy is certainly the more moral of the two men but how he got rid of his second to last wife is sad but was happy with his last wife until his death. Finally, due to Stan Laurels multiple wives was he broke the rest of his life due to alimony? Not according to his daughter in an interview on YouTube. Not sure where that rumor got started and no he is not the long-lost father of Clint Eastwood.
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Top reviews from the United States

Benjamin Mott
5.0 out of 5 stars A Gorgeous, Literary Portrait of One of Hollywood's Greatest Partnerships
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2018
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As a kid I would watch TV for hours every Saturday, starting early with the usual melange of cartoons (Warner Bros., Justice League, Tom & Jerry, etc.) and moving on to old comedies and then to kung fu and B-movie horror in the afternoons. It was, in a word, idyllic.

Of all the on-screen media so consumed, it was the black-and-white comedies that really stuck with me--I especially loved the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and Laurel and Hardy. I found Laurel and Hardy particularly irresistible: the filmic interaction between the two men mirrored the very familiar relationship between exasperated parent and clueless child. Little did I know that the affection they had for each other on-screen was even stronger in real life. As this gorgeous, hypnotic book shows, these two men had one of the most genuine and touching friendships in Hollywood history.

The story is told from the perspective of Stan Laurel, musing from self-imposed exile in the Oceana Apartments in Santa Monica near the end of his life. When his beloved partner, Oliver "Babe" Hardy died, Laurel retreated from life with his (fifth) wife in tow, writing skits for him and his partner that would of course never be performed. It was an act of invocation, of the person whose death had left a gaping wound in the fabric of his existence, never to be repaired.

As he reflects upon his life--beginning on England's rough-and-tumble vaudeville stages, moving on in the wake of Charlie Chaplin's transition to America, and finally to the movie lots of early Hollywood and eventually to worldwide fame--Laurel recounts the sordid history of Tinseltown, which was as debauched and unregulated a place as could be imagined. For anyone who thinks that Weinstein is somehow unique among the predatory men of Hollywood, for instance, this book is a reminder that those predatory patterns were established from the start, baked into the DNA of the place. And among the most debauched was the great genius himself, Charlie Chaplin, who was a special kind of monster.

For devotees of this era, and of Chaplin in particular, this book may sit uneasily--it paints a convincing portrait of a time when women were ground to pieces by the film industry, implicating in some sense every man involved in the business. Chaplin's fondness for underage girls was an open secret in Hollywood, for instance, and his treatment of these young women is just shocking. But if you did not yourself perpetrate the worst sorts of crimes against women, as a man you were complicit at the very least by letting the daily parade of degradation march on, unchecked. By all accounts, Laurel was a sweet man with whom many women fell in love over the years (five of them sufficiently to marry him), but even he left a trail of broken relationships and betrayals in his wake.

The heart of this book, however, and the reason it is such a joy to read, is the depiction of friendship between two men of such tenderness and power. The love Laurel has for Babe is evident on every page, and since John Connolly spent more than a decade combing through the actor's correspondence and life story, the novel has the undeniable ring of authenticity. These two men loved each other deeply and their partnership was one of the great and happy accidents that occurred in a city and an industry that seems to have thrown people together and torn them apart for profit on a daily basis. This book is a perfect example of how fiction allows the portrayal of a sort of emotional truth that is beyond any mere recounting of fact.

This is one of the most moving novels of recent memory, and a literary achievement of the highest order.
13 people found this helpful
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dan mollise
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, compelling
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2023
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Even though this book receives a lot of criticism - I found it compelling and interesting. It is, after all, a fictionalized account - my long fascination and study of Stan Laurel leads me to believe that a great deal of this is certainly plausible. Gave me a real sense of “being there” as I read it. Recommended.
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Dan Mendivil
4.0 out of 5 stars He is great
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021
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Great book that took past stories either completely true or elaborated and breathed life into them
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Bob P
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific book. Wonderfully written.
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2019
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I enjoyed this book immensely. The writing style is wonderful and kept me engaged for the entire story. I grew up watching: Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, W.C.Fields, Dead End Kids, etc. This book was "raw" in it's writing, but it felt right. I came away, after finishing the book, with an even greater appreciation for these two fine artists. Thank you, John Connolly. Now I need to go re-read the Charlie Parker series again.
2 people found this helpful
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Jack Fuehring
5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2022
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This is an incredible book for a number of reasons not the least of which is the historical setting. I am an avid fan of John Conolly’s fiction and he really knows how to grab your interest and keep your attention. Stan Laurel’s story is intimately intertwined with the genesis of cinema and it’s transition to talkies. You don’t want to miss this!
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Walter D. Bialkowski
3.0 out of 5 stars This is a fictionalized account of the life of Arthur Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2018
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For me the problem with this book was the use of much foul language when describing Stan Laurel's various marriages, divorces, and affairs. For that reason I cannot give it a rating higher than "3 stars". If the bad language were removed, I would rate something between 4 and 5 stars.
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J.R. STUART
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and unique biography of Stan Laurel!
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2019
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I've been studying Laurel & Hardy for nearly five decades, and there have been excellent biographies on them, particularly by John McCabe, but this one, through flashbacks, allows us into the mind of Stan as he reminisces in retirement on his career, family life, and -at the end, ultimately his love for his screen partner, Oliver Hardy.

It is a magnificent read, meticulously researched. It presents the gritty and the sublime life of a vaudevillian turned master of film comedy and puts you in the room with Hal Roach, Babe Hardy, Chaplin and the women in their lives and spares none of the flailings and vagaries of desire, ambition and regret. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

J.R. Stuart
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Frances McGeehin
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully written and moving book
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2019
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I rarely use the highlight function on my e reader but used it several times in the reading of this book. John Connolly has the most wonderful way with words and some of the imagery will stay with me always. Not to mention this book will make you want to go back and watch Laurel and Hardy. I loved it.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Davide Passaia
5.0 out of 5 stars Da leggere
Reviewed in Italy on February 28, 2020
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Sguardo inusuale sulla vita di Stan Laurel.
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Arno Gündisch
5.0 out of 5 stars Da werden alte Erinnerungen wach
Reviewed in Germany on October 13, 2019
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Laurel & Hardy haben mich während meiner ganzen Kindheit und Jugend begleitet. Ihr Humor möge für gewisse Geschmäcker allzu primitiv sein, im Gegensatz zur Raffinesse von Chaplins Spätwerk-doch dass hinderte mich nicht daran, jedes Mal in Lachkrämpfe zu verfallen, wenn sie auf der Leinwand ihre Gags abrissen.
Aus diversen Publikationen wußte ich schon damals, dass Laurel & Hardy in ihrem Privatleben nicht nur Lustiges erlebten-der vorliegende Roman beleuchtet jedoch ihre persönlichen Abgründe (besonders die von Stan Laurel) etwas genauer mit viel Einfühlungsvermögen, wie er uns auch in die Abgründe des damaligen Film-und Showgeschäfts einführt.
Einen solchen Roman hätte ich von John Connolly nicht erwartet, und das ist durchaus positiv gemeint. Er gehörte schon immer zu den Autoren, für die der Schreibstil genauso wichtig wie die Handlung selber ist (oder manchmal noch wichtiger, man nehme nur "A Book of Bones" oder "The Fractured Atlas"), doch mit "He" hat er sein Eintritts-Ticket zur "Seriösen Literatur" gelöst und plaziert sich in die Nähe eines Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Wer hinter die Kulissen der goldenen Comedy-Epoche blicken will, kommt an diesem Buch nicht vorbei. Und ich bin gespannt, was wir von John Connolly noch außerhalb seiner Charlie Parker-Romane erwarten dürfen...
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GJC62
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2017
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A truly wonderful book, beautifully written. Whilst it is a novel, the facts are correct, very much in how Philippa Gregory approaches her novels. But what sets it apart is the way that it is written. Once you let your mind get used to the writing style (and it is unusual), the rhythm of the book makes sense. Multiple short chapters make you want to continue the journey, with myself spending many times up later that I wanted or expected to be. I noticed that some dislike that it is a novel but a life long fan of Laurel & Hardy I liked that it was an imagined commentary, and you felt you were with him as he grasps for memories, some real, some imagined, and some wished to be, at the end of his life. At times exceptionally funny about things that probably should not be but always deeply moving. One line in the book has stuck with me as it exemplifies modern writing at its best. He writes of Hal Roach " He was a colourful man in a black and white world" ... Beautiful
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KelvinJD
5.0 out of 5 stars 'HE' IS A PROFOUND MASTERPIECE - TO ANYONE WITH A GROWN UP BEATING HEART
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2019
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A LITTLE PROLOGUE TO SET THE SCENE:
In order to avoid the pitfalls associated with, er (consults thesaurus), giddy hyperbole, I let several months pass before attempting a review, just to see if my initial feelings about the above had changed in any way. Not a bit of it, as it happens, so this is what I came up with…

………………………………………………………………………………………..

I swear I’ve never read anything like HE, JOHN CONNOLLY’s novel about STAN LAUREL and, of course, OLIVER HARDY. If you love their work, love them as the greatest comedy double-act of all time then, crucially, you have to love them as human beings with all the complexities and flaws that go with the world they inhabited. Anything less is to misunderstand what a massive achievement Connolly's work represents. The flow of his words, their deliberate rhythms and structures and the intense emotional impact they deliver, paint the most vivid picture of one man, Stan Laurel, facing his own inescapable mortality, reaching out for decades-old memories that are fast fading in direct proportion to his physical deterioration. It is both terribly sad and beautifully poignant. But also funny, heartwarming, annoying, frustrating and joyous…and all the other things that, basically, go to make up a life. An ordinary man on the one hand, yet someone bathed in that rarest glow of extraordinary genius on the other.

Sadly, the presence of CHARLIE CHAPLIN (arguably an equal in talent, but not to my taste - too much bathos), cast a long, and largely needless, psychological shadow over Stan Laurel that lasted all his life, with no real closure; he just couldn't shake the incorrect belief that Chaplin's work was somehow cinematic 'Art', when compared to The Boys' 'simpler' fayre. They may have shared similar ambitions to 'conquer the world' as they travelled together across the Atlantic in 1910, along with the other Fred Karno hopefuls, but Chaplin was to be no friend - not with the monumental hang-ups he possessed. And this is a fascinating strand that HE comes back to again and again; its significance to Stan’s thought processes mingled with regrets about the relative slow-burn of his early career trajectory in relation to Chaplin’s meteoric rise to fame.

Interestingly (and controversially, if some of the negative, missing-the-point reviews are anything to go by), Connolly uses just one particular swear word throughout, and that is solely to describe his subjects' engagement in a frequent and largely loveless act, you know the one I'm talking about. But his coarseness is entirely in context with the bigger picture: this was Hollywood of the 20s and 30s and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were no different, at times, to any other then-famous stars of the silver screen, often displaying hugely contradictory moral standpoints, much to the delight of the voracious newspaper gossip columns. There's no doubt both men were brought up to be gentlemen but, in the grip of fame, theirs was very much gentlemanly behaviour of the 'old school' and subject to the interpretative whims of the moment. Whims leading to troubles that could not be routinely packed up and forgotten. It certainly says something about how the gender imbalance was viewed in those days, but the easy availability of alcohol also played its part in many a busted relationship. All willing participants therefore had a price to pay for their wayward behaviour, and some even paid with their lives. Throughout, however, the world continued to laugh at the perfectly-executed onscreen entertainment. Just as we do today.

HE traces the career paths of Laurel and Hardy, through the classic shorts, the forgettable major studio features of the 40s and Stan’s final years with Ida at his Oceana Hotel apartment in Santa Monica. In their prime, however, tangled domestic dramas ensured the feet of both men stayed not just on the ground, but often firmly in the mire. Stan, in particular, kept the Roach studio legal department very busy. The one thing that never suffered was the tremendous artistic creativity, which flowed as naturally as the blood and sweat that went into every frame of every classic picture he and his 'pal' made. I also urge you to look up the very last words he spoke before passing and marvel at the wonderful comic timing of it all - if ever there was a gag perfectly suited to a typically surreal fade-out of a never-filmed Laurel and Hardy two-reeler, that was it.

The last few chapters of HE are truly heart-breaking whether or not you’re familiar with what actually happened; Connolly's words hit hard but ultimately uplift and it’s impossible not to be moved by the raw emotion of unfolding events. The depth of the research involved and the interweaving of fact and fiction (the perfectly extrapolated dialogue) is seamless. I really can hear Stan joking and reminiscing with 'Babe', arguing with Hal Roach over contractual issues or trying to explain his latest wedded status to long-suffering agent Ben Shipman; some of the exchanges are just plain hilarious, even when shot through with a just-below-the-surface streak of melancholy. HE captures all that and so much more. Much more than I could possibly do justice to, but when something's this good I suppose it would be impolite not to at least have a go.

An astonishing novel in every regard, HE will stay with you.

UNRESERVEDLY RECOMMENDED
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Kolja D.
5.0 out of 5 stars Anders, aber toll
Reviewed in Germany on November 16, 2018
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Sicherlich kann man bei einem "Roman" kein absolutes Vertrauen zum präsentierten Inhalt haben, aber man hat am Ende schon ein gutes Bild von Stan Laurel vor Augen. Die Struktur des Romans ist ungewöhnlich, aber aufgrund der teilweise sehr kurzen Kapitel rast man förmlich durch das Buch. Sehr empfehlenswert als Begleitung zu anderen Biografien über Stan Laurel.
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