FollowJust finished the very good “Devil in the Kitchen” by Marco Pierre White ***1/2 that was ghostwritten, but I didn’t realize it until the acknowledgments. Sometimes ghostwriting can lead to a good story being told.
That being said it didn’t have immediacy of my favorite book about working in the kitchen, Anthony Bourdain’s amazing “Kitchen Confidential” ****1/2. I think there can be something lost in having your words in someone else’s hands.
One of my favorite books of a couple years ago was Andre Agassi’s “Open” **** which was also ghostwritten. It allows someone who isn’t a writer to get a book out. In this case the wonderful story of a champion tennis player who hated tennis. For this book Andre Agassi offered his Pultizer Prize winning ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer credit, but he turned it down.
I know there are a lot of terrible ghostwritten books which are slapdash, but as long as the writer is open about it, it’s a way for a story to be told well.
Not everyone is a writer, I am trying to work my towards being one.