by James Spada
The author has put together books about Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty, Bette Midler, Katharine Hepburn, Judy and Liza, Marilyn Monroe, Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford. The books are made up mostly of fan-magazine-type writing and publicity photographs—and that's certainly the case in this volume on Jane Fonda. Yet there is a kind of analyze-it-yourself appeal to the straightfoward, chronological rehashing of a career. The pictures remind us that Hollywood first tried to make Fonda look like every other cutie pie starlet who ever wanted a big break. And they show the funny, vulnerable comedienne of Barefoot in the Park and the ridiculous sexpot of Barbarella turning into the strident crusader of Vietnam War protests, then the mature actress in such well-regarded films as Klute and The China Syndrome. Now there's the fitness guru who could yet become a great character actress. Spada says little about why Fonda has done what she's done, but then that's hardly his style. This kind of book is ideal for people who either want to draw their own conclusions or not bother with conclusions at all. (Doubleday, $24.95)
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