Saloon Singer

"At heart, I'm a saloon singer," said Frank Sinatra, "because there's a greater intimacy between performer and audience in a nightclub." Marking the 100th year of the birth of a legend, this fizzy cocktail of a book provides an unvarnished portrait of a scrappy underdog who occupies a unique place in the pantheon of American popular culture. You get a little history and a bit of sociology. His contemporaries as well as subsequent observers have plenty to say about Frank Sinatra - he's tough and tender, a lover and a fighter, a star and a loner - and his own brash words provide an affectionate, perceptive portrait of the man who is called the greatest entertainer of all time.