Sinatra and Me: The Very Good Years

Consiglio’s memoir centers on his years spent as the personal assistant to entertainment icon Frank Sinatra, and the friendship the two men shared over many decades. As Consiglio recounts a treasure trove of colorful anecdotes featuring a jaw-dropping cast of celebrities and public figures, narrator Norman Dietz lends him a streetwise but unassuming persona and distinctive Italian-American dialect. Dietz delivers spot-on pronunciation and annunciation, and never falls into the trap of affected stereotypes. He also takes great pains to remain faithful to Consiglio’s prose; passages that recount Sinatra’s mercurial temperament are delivered in a stoic, earnest, just-the-facts manner, free of irony or labored introspection. Dietz also allows the author’s concern for such troubled Sinatra friends as Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland to shine through with sincerity. A Tantor paperback. (Nov.)