I finally got around to reading the 2007 biography I’m Chevy Chase… And You’re Not and I’m sorry to say I’m dubious about the book. Chase is one of Saturday Night Live‘s original cast members and indeed one of the main architects who created the show alongside Lorne Michaels and Michael O’Donoghue. I can be obsessive about SNL, picking up almost every book about the show and its rotating cast that I can get my hands on. Chevy’s work on SNL and his Hollywood career are well known and need no re-hash here. The man is certainly worthy of biographical treatment but my personal feeling is that perhaps this third rate biography is about all he deserves.
First of all, the writing is unimaginative and fails to rise to any level of investigative journalism. A third grader could do a better job than this. Okay. Maybe that’s a little harsh. Make that a sixth grader. It seems a little odd to me that after years of reading stuff about what a jerk Chevy can be, this biography comes along and paints the first glowing account of his life that I have ever seen or heard. It’s only natural that the subject should be a key source for an official biography, but author Rena Fruchter comes off as a total sycophant on Chevy’s pay roll.
To his credit, Chase is open and honest about the abuse he suffered as a child. Issues and challenges that those youthful experiences brought about in his adult life are addressed in a brutally honest and admirably forthcoming manner here. That alone constitutes a bravery sadly lacking in most people, be they celebrity or not. The book also provides new perspective on Chevy’s departure from SNL after only one season which I found illuminating.
I want to believe that maybe Chevy is not the asshole that dozens of writers and former co-workers have described over the years. And perhaps a better writer could have painted this portrait a little more convincingly. On the other hand, if he really is a jerk, I can’t imagine there would be much demand for a tell-all, “Citizen Chase”, Hollywood Babylon-type treatment. Ultimately, perhaps the chosen approach was a marketing decision. The largest prospective audience for a book like this is the man’s fan base. He’s a funny guy and a major figure in American comedy no matter how you look at it. So it’s two steps forward with his personal revelations but one step back with a poor choice for biographer and I remain ambivalent about whether he deserves better. It’s just been too many years for me reading about what a jerk Chevy can be for this book to come along and just completely change my thinking about him. Having said all that, I still love the guy. In the final analysis, the courage he displays in his willingness to speak about the horrors of child abuse and his own admission that drug use drove him into rehab in the 80s will likely win out and make me love him even more. Those are things that surely would have been glossed over or skipped altogether if this bio were a total hack job.
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