You See, I Haven't Forgotten

This appropriately entertaining book about the French music-hall singer and actor, who died last November at age 70, combines the best qualities of autobiography and biography. Occasionally Montand reminisces about his past, but for the most part Parisian journalists Hamon and Rotman offer a sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted narrative that gives as much weight to the recollections of his family and friends as it does to Montand, making for a balanced portrait. The book also captures the excitement and surprise of its subject's unusual background: his childhood as the son of political refugees from Fascist Italy, his early years as a manual laborer in Marseilles, his rapid rise to stardom as a singer, then an actor. Of equal interest are his painful, gradual shedding of the family commitment to Communism, his famous love affairs--with Edith Piaf (``She hurt me, with such honesty, such laughter and grace, that I took several years to heal'') and Marilyn Monroe (``I encountered a woman who was strong, full of good sense, with the vitality of a peasant'')--and his marriage to actress Simone Signoret, who died in 1985. Photos not seen by PW . (Sept.)