From Publishers Weekly
Like Michael Starr's Bobby Darin, Evanier's sturdy bio quickly notes how the specter of early death spurred Bobby Darin to early fame. When, at 13, Darin overheard his doctor giving him about three more years to live (rheumatic fever had weakened his heart), the teenager decided he'd better not waste any time in becoming a star. Former senior Paris Review editor Evanier (Making the Wise Guys Weep) follows Darin's career from his early days in the New York music scene through the commercial success of "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife" to his later, much-maligned attempt to be a folk singer (Frankie Avalon: "I said to him, 'Bobby, what the fuck are you doing?' "). He also details Darin's attempts to launch a music publishing company (first by encouraging Wayne Newton, then an aspiring young singer, to record "Danke Schoen," a song Darin could have recorded himself) and to begin an acting career. Evanier also takes a hard look at Darin's personal relationships, particularly his troubled marriage to "America's Sweetheart," Sandra Dee. Informed by scores of interviews with Darin's friends and associates and written in no-nonsense, just-the-facts prose, Evanier's book paints a picture of a ruthlessly ambitious musician with a compelling, if not entirely sympathetic, reason for so much of his behavior. Sinatra may have had the bragging rights to "My Way," but Darin (1936-1973) lived out the lyrics. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Review
"In order to truly understand who Bobby Darin was you have to understand
where he came from. David Evanier's new book, ROMAN CANDLE, tells the story
of the young Walden Robert Cassotto--who grew up to become Bobby Darin--in
a compelling and revealing way. His examination of Darin's impulses and
influences give the reader a chance to go behind the persona and learn what
it must have been like to grow up knowing that time was not on your side.
Darin's drive and ambition was fueled by childhood illness and a
determination to live as many lives as he could. As Darin himself used to
say, 'It's not true you only live once--you can live a lot of times--if you
know how.' ROMAN CANDLE gives us the many lives of one of the great
entertainers of all time, whose flame was extinguished way too soon. It was
a pleasure to read." --Kevin Spacey, actor/director, BEYOND THE SEA

"This biography percolates with cool. . . . [Evanier has] written a book so charged with intimacy, so heartbreakingly ebullient with life, that you feel that any moment the pages are about to snap their fingers and break into song."--Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe

"Darin has been the subject of several books; most notable is this new examination of the singer's life and work by David Evanier, a former senior editor of The Paris Review. . . . Evanier's portrait, true to its title, is one of a bright talent that soared quickly and erupted in a flash of glory."--David Hajdu, The Atlantic Monthly

"Music fans are liable to be surprised by the Bobby Darin mania sparked by Kevin Spacey's sunny new film biography. For the slightly darker look at Darin, hole up for the holidays with ROMAN CANDLE, the latest book about Darin's rollercoaster life."--Top Ten list of Books for Gifts by Janet Maslin of the New York Times (12/19/04)




Book Description
A sensitive, startling portrait of the legendary singer-timed to hit stores just as the Kevin Spacey movie Beyond the Sea has kindled intense new interest in every aspect of Darin's life and tragically early death.

By age 8 Bobby Darin knew he was doomed to die young. So he set out to become a showbiz legend by age 25. From his Grammy-winning smash hit "Mack the Knife" to his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Captain Newman, M.D., Darin left his mark on every aspect of show business that he touched. Now, 32 years after his death at age 37, we finally have an elegantly written, multilayered portrait of this brash, gifted artist.

Author David Evanier has:
o Interviewed all the key principals in the Darin saga and culled rare photographs from the singer's closest friends
o Pored through scores of videotapes, audiotapes,
recordings, documents, and films
o Re-created the rock-and-roll and Broadway show-
business milieus of the 1950s that Darin emerged from, and the sharply changing musical, political, and cultural world of the 1960s that had such a profound impact on him.

The result is a moving, insightful portrait of one of the greatest-and most complex-performers in the history of American entertainment, whose restless voice and spirit seem as alive today as ever.



About the Author
DAVID EVANIER is a prizewinning writer; former senior editor of The Paris Review; author of Making the Wiseguys Weep, a biography of Jimmy Roselli that became a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and coauthor (with Joey Pantoliano of Sopranos fame) of the bestselling Who's Sorry Now. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Bobby Darin, as a performer, rivaled Sinatra. Energizing the early rock-and-roll scene with his rollicking classic "Splish Splash," Bobby then became a top-draw nightclub act. Chronic illness dogged him from childhood, setting the tone of urgency that inspired a career fully of dizzying twists and turns: from teen idol to Vegas song-and-dance man, and from hipster to folkie and back." Based on extensive interviews with those who knew Bobby, Roman Candle tracks his meteoric rise from dire poverty as the grandson of a low-level mobster to his well-earned place in the showbiz pantheon. David Evanier probes the dark side of a celebrated marriage to America's sweetheart, Sandra Dee, as well as the incredible family secret that affected Bobby to the end.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly