Arnold Schwarzenegger: a memoir to tell us why he and Maria broke up
When he said, “I’ll be back,” he meant it.
The man with nine lives – Arnold Schwarzenegger: five-time Mr. Universe, seven-time Mr. Olympia, one-time Mr. World, Austrian bodybuilder, American movie star, Kennedy family man, California governor, and now soon-to-be-divorced movie star/author – is back again, this time with a book deal.
Simon and Schuster will publish the Arnold’s memoir, “Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story,” in October 2012, the publisher announced Thursday.
“Nobody has a life story even close to his,” Jonathan Karp, of Simon & Schuster, said. "Truly, Arnold is one of the most fascinating figures of our time.”
According to Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, Adam Mendelsohn, the former governor has been planning to write the book for at least a year, but waited until he was out of office to explore his options.
“He has been keeping notes and working on the book for over a year," his spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said. "He didn't want to write his autobiography while he was governor."
Of course, Schwarzenegger’s post-gubernatorial revelations will probably only help boost his forthcoming memoir’s publicity. As soon as he finished his terms as governor, Schwarzenegger made headlines again when news reports revealed he had fathered a child with a member of the family’s staff 14 years earlier. The son is almost the same age as Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver’s son. Ms. Shriver, a journalist, ended their 25-year marriage earlier this year after she learned the news.
The memoir, which the publisher has said, “will not be a tell-all,” will discuss the breakup of Schwarzenegger and Shriver’s famous marriage, along with Schwarzenegger’s journey to the US and his rise to fame.
"Considered one of the most anticipated autobiographies of this generation, Schwarzenegger presents a larger-than-life portrait of his illustrious, controversial and ever-entertaining life in and out of the public eye,” Simon and Schuster breathlessly announced in a press release. The former bodybuilder will work with Peter Petre, former executive editor of Fortune and co-author of autobiographies by Alan Greenspan and Norman Schwarzkopf, between shooting scenes for his next film, "The Expendables 2," with Sylvester Stallone.
This isn’t the first memoir the actor has written. He’s previously penned a handful of books, including “The Education of a Bodybuilder” in 1977, “Arnold’s Bodybuilding for Men,” in 1984, “Arnold,” in 1993, and “The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding,” in 1999.
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
