My book review:

Being an actor, it must be strange to know that if you leave behind an impressive enough body of work that hundreds of people, nay thousands, will pore over all the minute of your life in an effort to recapture who you were. Talk about a legacy! This is exactly what has happened to Steve McQueen in the book 'McQueen', the author (Christopher Sandford, writing tips you can find on the our writing blog) has buried himself in a self-made catalogue of McQueen's life... the research that must've gone into this 500 page book would've been intensive.

The book follows McQueen from his childhood right through to his premature death. All 28 of his films are dealt with in-depth, as are his 'wilderness' years between jobs and film roles, his contempt for Hollywood, his death-defying love affair with all things fast, his paranoia, his business acumen, his wives, his lovers, and his stint in the marine corps. The hardest parts to take are the end sequences of this book, where McQueen fought against his cancer and sought out the help of a doctor with an alleged 'miracle cure'. It's all in the book, in vivid detail.

I haven't read any other books about Steve McQueen (nor would I really need to after reading this one), but I'd venture that this is the most definitive account of his life currently available. Like I said, the research appears to have been pretty full on so I dare say that there is little conjecture to be had here. Sandford is a cold copy kind of writer, he doesn't really try to dizzy us with amazing prose... instead he strings together all his hard-won facts and intricate details into a mesmerising web that is probably as close to a McQueen autobiography that we'll ever get. On more than a few occasions Sandford dares to assume what might have been going through McQueen's head - fortunately, it's all so reasonable and logical that you don't really question it too much... everything in this book makes sense. There are no jumps or flights of fancy - this is as close as a fan can get to understanding the man behind the myth, and it doesn't debunk his status as an icon either.

I probably wouldn't reccomend this book to someone who wasn't already a fan of Steve McQueen. Like I said, it's almost 500 pages and is very in-depth, and the writing is fairly dry at times. Your interest in certain parts of the book will depend on what interests you the most about McQueen.