The Acrobat

<b>AN <i>OPRAH DAILY</i> BEST NOVEL BASED ON A TRUE STORY</b><b><br></b><p></p><p><b>Delaney[‘s] splendid
fictional biography of Cary Grant . . . perfectly befits the glamour and fakery
of his subject. </b><b><span>-<i>Publishers Weekly </i></span><span>(starred review)</span></b></p><p>“Everyone wants to be Cary Grant” mused the world's most famous leading man. Even I want to be Cary Grant.”</p><p class=MsoNormal>It’s 1959 and the 55-year-old man who calls himself Cary
Grant is at the peak <span>of a charmed career. He’s also on a turbulent journey to
find the core of a self </span><span>he hardly seems to know anymore. Introduced to the wonder
drug LSD as part of </span><span>his therapy at The Psychiatric Institute of Beverly Hills
he embarks on upward of </span><span>one hundred psychedelic trips—at times harrowing journeys.
And on the way he </span><span>rediscovers the long-ago boy who faced the world as Archie
Leach the earnest </span><span>gap-toothed stilt walker and tumbler he once was long ago.</span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span>     In </span><i>The Acrobat</i><span> fiction writer Edward J. Delaney takes on
the elusive character </span><span>of Cary Grant. He imagines the inner life of a man who spent
a career brilliantly </span><span>creating a persona as ethereal as his best roles. As Grant
launches on LSD-fueled </span><span>trajectories of discovery<i> The Acrobat</i> likewise transports
readers through his </span><span>fractured upbringing his start in English vaudeville his
life on the Hollywood sets </span><span>and his relationships with fellow travelers prominent in his
life: Howard Hughes </span><span>Randolph Scott Blake Edwards Tony Curtis two of the five
women he married </span><span>and more. Amid the endless versions of himself and the
characters he’s played he </span><span>yearns to shape himself into something singular forged from
the layers of illusion </span><span>he’s smilingly foisted on the world and for which the world
has come to love him. </span><span>This riveting dramatization of the actor’s life takes us
beyond the firm terrain </span><span>that biographies tread to offer a new perspective on a
complex Hollywood legend.</span></p><p class=MsoNormal></p>