I seldom read biographies and only pick them up if I really appreciate the author's work. This is exactly the case with Elephant. The reason for the title is that Caine was raised in the area of London known as the Elephant and Castle, you should go sometime, there is an elephant in the middle of the roundabout - really! It is not the most savoury part of the city but it is where he is from and doesn't like to forget that. This book does tell of some great times with great people who Caine has known throughout most of his life but he also talks about how lucky he knows he has been. There are many glamorous events and of course his Oscar winning moments but you never feel like he has lost touch with reality or how much he truly appreciates his family and friends. He is completely transparent about when he has screwed up and one gets the feeling that he is his own harshest critic.
After saying that he is one of the blokes you could just hang out with in the garden and then cooking up a great meal and just chatting about life. You have got to love that in a man who has met the Queen and worked with some of the greatest actors who have ever lived. I won't go into any details of what that looked like as that is most of the fun of the book but one of my favourite stories is how he met his wife, the beautiful Shakira. That is quite hilarious but also profound at the same time. My husband will say to me that he knew he would marry an English girl (when he lived 7000 miles away with no concrete plans to move to England) just like Michael knew he would marry Shakira before he had even met her. That is quiet a romantic story. Anyway I do recommend this book for not only its fabulous content but also quality of writing. One never finds oneself bored with any of it and quite uplifting to read about someone who is so grateful instead of thinking the world would stop turning without him.
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