One of the few celebrity memoirs I genuinely enjoyed start to finish.
Like many, I am most familiar with Henry Winkler due to his role as "The Fonz" in Happy Days reruns. I knew very little about his history outside the show, and most of my knowledge boiled down to how he refused to rename the show to include the name of his enormously popular character so as not to diminish the attention from the originally intended lead actor (Ron Howard) and the rest of the crew.
So, I guess I should not have been surprised at the fact that "Being Henry" is not about Winkler's role as the Fonz. It only takes up about one third of the book, and most of that era details how he grew as a man outside of the show.
I think the aspect of this book I enjoyed most is how much Winkler confesses to a sort of imposter syndrome despite his role as one of America's most beloved characters, one of the minds behind an incredibly successful franchise (MacGyver anyone?), and even his personal successes before it all began (the guy went to freaking Yale!). I loved the humor with which he approached the awkward situations he got into both his personal and professional life. All of it is just a really great window into a humble, likeable, down-to-earth person with feelings of inadequacy that I feel many of us can relate to.
Like many, I am most familiar with Henry Winkler due to his role as "The Fonz" in Happy Days reruns. I knew very little about his history outside the show, and most of my knowledge boiled down to how he refused to rename the show to include the name of his enormously popular character so as not to diminish the attention from the originally intended lead actor (Ron Howard) and the rest of the crew.
So, I guess I should not have been surprised at the fact that "Being Henry" is not about Winkler's role as the Fonz. It only takes up about one third of the book, and most of that era details how he grew as a man outside of the show.
I think the aspect of this book I enjoyed most is how much Winkler confesses to a sort of imposter syndrome despite his role as one of America's most beloved characters, one of the minds behind an incredibly successful franchise (MacGyver anyone?), and even his personal successes before it all began (the guy went to freaking Yale!). I loved the humor with which he approached the awkward situations he got into both his personal and professional life. All of it is just a really great window into a humble, likeable, down-to-earth person with feelings of inadequacy that I feel many of us can relate to.