A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley by Neal Thompson
When I received this readers’ copy, I thought this would be a great read. I remember reading Ripley cartoons and information blurbs when I was younger and found the information hard to believe but realized that the information was accurate if somewhat distorted on occasion. The life and times of Ripley should have made an interesting read. Instead, it was a story about a less than honest and egomaniacal journalist looking to make a name for him any way he could.
Ripley’s early life left some lasting impressions on the young lad. He eventually matured into a handsome fellow who seemed to have a great deal of success with the women of the day. He stylized himself an adventurer so long as there were creature comforts available, namely alcohol and women.
Thompson develops his story around how the “Believe It or Not!” cartoons became so successful. Initially, the cartoons featured amazing athletes and athletic feats. However, trying to create a new cartoon about the same topic time-after-time must be very challenging. It was not until Ripley journeyed on an around-the-world voyage that his cartoons started to feature some really odd and amazing things. Pearlroth, the real brain behind the Ripley cartoons, received no credit from Ripley after years of digging up strange and obscure factoids that they could use in the cartoons. The strange, the odd, the bizarre, and the grotesque became an American obsession and led Ripley to his niche.
The showmanship of Ripley’s oddities and grotesqueries as he called them quickly began and bought Ripley more fame and fortune. In 1929, Simon & Schuster published a 188 page Ripley book to astounding success. The rest as they say is history.
I felt let down by the time I got half way through the book but I pushed on hoping that the story got better. Thompson has a great writing style but I just found the topic boring by this time.
I am going to look for other Thompson books and compare them to this one. I hope I do not have the same concerns after reading them.
Overall, if you are a true Ripley fan then I suspect you will like this book. If you have a passing interest in Ripley then you might enjoy this story.
Happy Reading,
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