A provocative new wayof thinking about biography. The radial structure vibrates, likeHitchcock's best films, with intuition and mystery.--Parul Sehgal, New York Times The great strength of The Twelve Lives is that a reader comes away from it with a vivid sense of how Hitchcock ignited screen masterpieces with the fires of his inner discord and contradictions.--Alexander Kafka, Washington Post Full of such sharpobservations, offering a Hitchcock whose art endures alongside--and in some waysdepends upon--his insecurities and mistakes.--Farran Smith Nehme, Wall Street Journal White's book is a perceptive, plainspoken, and vigorous portrait of an exceedingly strange, complicated, and perhaps deeply wounded man.--John Banville, The New Republic Thoughtful and nuanced. Grasps Hitchcock's enduring hold on our aspirations and our fears.--Glenn Frankel, Washington Post Perceptive and gracefully written, The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock is a bracing study of the master of suspense.

It is a rare book that could pleasurably be twice as long.--The Economist Rather than forcingHitchcock's often contradictory guises into a coherent whole, this deft accounttakes them as a starting point. The result is a nuanced and frequentlyunfamiliar portrait. Essays on the director's sartorial and culinarypreoccupations and his penchant for publicity--chapter headings include 'The FatMan' and 'The Dandy'--yield new perspectives on a multifaceted career.--The New Yorker [An] innovativebiography of Alfred Hitchcock. Tracking Hitchcock's contemporaryinfluence, White is an enterprising tour guide.--Peter Conrad, The Observer By approaching the life and career of Alfred Hitchcock from a dozen distinct and revealing vantage points, Edward White presents a portrait that is highly nuanced, brimming with critical insights, and, like his subject, thoroughly entertaining.--Noah Isenberg, author of We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie Edward White's The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock is a pinata of literary pleasures.

Learned and graceful, thoughtful and provocative, White cracks the Hitchcock code with deft analysis and fine writing. It's a high-stepping performance full of humor and depth. Walking a tightrope between criticism and biography, White places both the man and his myth in the cultural landscape of his times. In the process, he returns us to the films with a much more informed eye. A book to keep and to return to.--John Lahr, author of Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh.