Ethel Merman, Mother Teresa...and Me: My Improbable Journey from Châteaux in France to the Slums of Calcutta Book Feature
Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Prospecta Press (February 15, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1935212346
ISBN-13: 978-1935212348
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
Ethel Merman, Mother Teresa...and Me: My Improbable Journey from Châteaux in France to the Slums of Calcutta Book Synopsis
How many people can count among their closest friends Ethel Merman (the Queen of
Broadway), Mother Teresa (beatified by the Vatican in October, 2003), Lee Lehman, (wife of Robert Lehman, head of Lehman Brothers), Pierre Cardin (legendary couturier and major show-business force in Europe), and many others?
Well, Tony Cointreau, a scion of the French liqueur family, can. After a successful international singing career, and several years on the Cointreau board of directors, he felt a need for something more meaningful in his life. His voice had taken him to the stage, and his heart took him to Calcutta. Tony’s childhood experiences with an emotionally remote mother, an angry bullying brother, a cold and unprotective Swiss nurse, and a sexually predatory schoolteacher left him convinced that the only way to be loved is to be perfect. This led him on a lifelong quest for love and for a mother figure.
His first “other mother” was the internationally acclaimed beauty Lee Lehman. Then, after Tony met the iconic Broadway diva Ethel Merman, she became his mentor and second “other mother.” His memoir describes in detail his intimate family relationships with both women, as well as his years of work and friendship with Mother Teresa, his last “other mother.”
Tony’s memoir voices his opinion that he had no special gifts or talents to bring to Mother Teresa’s work and that if he could do it, then anyone could do it. In the end, all that really matters is a willingness to share even a small part of oneself with others.
Ethel Merman, Mother Teresa...and Me: My Improbable Journey from Châteaux in France to the Slums of Calcutta Book Review
Let me say right up front that this is a solicited review. I almost passed on the request. Over the last several years nI’ve set aside all but a couple of celebrity memoirs within a few chapters because the authors were so full of themselves, claiming humility that failed to ring true. But something about the description of Tony Cointreau’s book did ring true, and my fingers took on a life of their own as they typed out “Yes, send it along.” I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
That was an inspired decision. I feel deeply moved and blessed by this book.
The book reads like conversation with a friend. During the course of getting to know someone, even along a linear path through time, new information emerges in non-linear ways, taking whimsical loops and side-trips in time before getting back to the thread. An overall picture gradually emerges. Likewise, this story bounces from New York to France and back, with forays out to California. Cointreau's struggles with emotional challenges are a continuing thread. His was not an easy life.
I also admired Cointreau's deft touch in setting an emotional tone. Perhaps in keeping with his emotionally Spartan upbringing, details of feelings are sparse, especially early in the book, yet the story evoked a deep sense of connection with this sensitive and fragile lad whose demons haunted him well into adulthood. The part I’d felt skeptical about was his relationship to celebrity, but he handled that well. He forthrightly explains that he was raised in a privileged world and for a long time he assumed everyone lived the way he did. He gives glimpses into glamorous places, parties and people, but never in detail. Names and details are mentioned only when directly relevant to the story. Get online Ethel Merman, Mother Teresa...and Me: My Improbable Journey from Châteaux in France to the Slums of Calcutta today.
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