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A long awaited biography of the man known in Hollywood as Mr. Cool has finally arrived. Unfortunately, the book builds up to an anti-climax because Samuel L. Jackson's best days are behind him rather ahead of him. If it were published after Pulp Fiction, which shot him to fame, then everything that happened to him prior to the release of that film would have been preparation for that moment in time. As it transpires, Jackson was only paid more money per film after the Tarantino flick, and with the exception of A Time to Kill and 187, he didn't go on to appear in any better films to knock his role of Jules Winnfield off its post.

There were a few things that could have been done better in the presentation of the book. For example, chapter 5 could have been headed Ragtime, so that readers can be informed at a glance what his experiences were on that film with James Cagney. Chapter 7 could have been headed Goodfellas, chapter 8 Jungle Fever, and chapter 11 Pulp Fiction.

If Pulp Fiction were the climax of the book, then everything that came before would have been wholly inspiring. Having graduated from Morehouse College and boasting an alumni of Dr. Martin Luther King and Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson is an example of a man who has secured his degree in Drama and plied his trade on the stage during the seventies. He may play menacing and unkempt characters on screen, but that is not a reflection of the real person. Although Jackson states that he is born into a working class family, he received a middle class education and assumes a middle class lifestyle (in spite of the fact that he detoured from social grace through his intoxication of drugs).

One of the interesting things that the book throws up beyond Pulp Fiction is the disparity between salaries paid to his white contemporaries and himself. Whilst A-List actors can claim $20m per movie, Samuel progressed to $6m for the Long Kiss Goodnight and then to $8 for subsequent projects. He doesn't get to kiss the leading ladies either, but this is a reflection of something that goes far deeper.

Jackson was 46 years old when he carved himself into immortality as the nostril flaring, mouth constricting Jules in Pulp Fiction. He is not exactly eye candy for the girls, and for someone whose youth is behind him you cannot expect him to be doing the Pierce Brosnan thing. However, Denzel Washington, who is eye candy for many women from diverse sections of society, was prevented from kissing and having sex with Julia Roberts in The Pelican Brief because of the miscegenation problem. Clearly, Jackson is robbed of sex on screen not because he's not the most handsome looking man, but because there is an unspoken rule that sex on screen is for whites only. Having said that, concessions can be made for black women to fornicate with white men (Thandie Newton and Tom Cruise - Mission Impossible ll). This suggests that if there is racial discrimination in the entertainment business it is against black men rather than black women, and black women cannot be used as an illustration of equal opportunities because black men are far more likely to be marginalized and excluded.

In conclusion then, the biography is like a novel with a beginning, an exciting middle but an extended ending that becomes counter-productive and deflates into an anti-climax.

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Email: tootingwriterscircle@yahoogroups.com

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