Total Recall

Zusammenfassung In his signature larger-than-life style! Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Recall is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious! controversial! and truly unique life. The greatest immigrant success story of our time. His story is unique! and uniquely entertaining! and he tells it brilliantly in these pages. He was born in a year of famine! in a small Austrian town! the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star. By the age of twenty-one! he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe. Within five years! he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. Within ten years! he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate! landscaping! and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry . Within twenty years! he was the world's biggest movie star! the husband of Maria Shriver! and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family. Thirty-six years after coming to America! the man once known by fellow body­builders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California! the seventh largest economy in the world. He led the state through a budget crisis! natural disasters! and political turmoil! working across party lines for a better environment! election reforms! and bipartisan solutions. With Maria Shriver! he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself! he tried to keep his family together. Until now! he has never told the full story of his life! in his own voice. Here is Arnold! with total recall. Informationen zum Autor Arnold Schwarzenegger served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Before that! he had a long career! starring in such films as the Terminator series; Stay Hungry ; Twins ; Predator ; and Junior . His first book! Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder ! was a bestseller when published in 1977 and! along with his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding ! has never been out of print since. ...

Autorentext

Arnold Schwarzenegger served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he had a long career, starring in such films as the Terminator series; Stay Hungry; Twins; Predator; and Junior. His first book, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a bestseller when published in 1977 and, along with his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, has never been out of print. He is the author of Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life and Arnold, a limited docuseries about his life, is currently streaming on Netflix.

Klappentext

In his signature larger-than-life style, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious, controversial, and truly unique life.

The greatest immigrant success story of our time.

His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.

He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star.

By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe.

Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.

Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.

Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family.

Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow body­builders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world.

He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms, and bipartisan solutions.

With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together.

Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice.

Here is Arnold, with total recall.

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Out of Austria

I was born into a year of famine. It was 1947, and Austria was occupied by the Allied armies that had defeated Hitler’s Third Reich. In May, two months before I was born, there were hunger riots in Vienna, and in Styria, the southeastern province where we lived, the food shortages were just as bad. Years later, if my mother wanted to remind me about how much she and my father sacrificed to bring me up, she’d tell me how she’d foraged across the countryside, making her way from farm to farm to collect a little butter, some sugar, some grain. She’d be away three days sometimes. *Hamstern, *they called it, like a hamster gathering nuts; scrounging for food was so common.

Thal was the name of our very typical farm village. A few hundred families made up the entire population, their houses and farms clustered in hamlets connected by footpaths and lanes. The unpaved main road ran for a couple of kilometers up and down low alpine hills covered with fields and pine forests.

We saw very little of the British forces who were in charge—just an occasional truck with soldiers rolling through. But to the east, Russians occupied the area, and we were very conscious of them. The Cold War had begun, and we all lived in fear that the Russian tanks would roll in, and we’d be swallowed up into the Soviet empire. The priests in church would scare the congregation with horror stories of Russians shooting babies in the arms of their mothers.

Our house was on the top of a hill along the road, and as I was growing up, it was unusual to see more than one or two cars come through a day. A ruined castle dating back to feudal times was right across from us, one hundred yards from our door.

On the next rise were the mayor’s office; the Catholic church where my mother made us all go to Sunday Mass; the local Gasthaus, or inn, which was the social heart of the village; and the primary school attended by me and my brother, Meinhard, who was a year older than me.

My earliest memories are of my mother washing clothes and my father shoveling coal. I was no more than three years old, but the image of my father is especially sharp in my mind. He was a big, athletic guy, and he did a lot of things himself. Every autumn we’d get our winter supply of coal, a truckload dumped in front of our house, and on this occasion he was letting Meinhard and me help him carry it into the cellar. We were always so proud to be his assistants.

My father and mom both originally came from working-class families farther north—factory laborers, mostly, in the steel industry. During the chaos at the end of World War II, they’d met in the city of Mürzzuschlag, where my mother, Aurelia Jadrny, was a clerk in a food-distribution center at city hall. She was in her early twenties, and a war widow—her husband had gotten killed just eight months after their wedding. Working at her desk one morning, she noticed my father passing on the street—an older guy, in his late thirties, but tall and good looking and wearing the uniform of the gendarmerie, the rural police. She was crazy about men in uniforms, so every day after that she watched for him. She figured out when his shift was so she would be sure to be at her desk. They’d talk through the open window, and she’d give him some food from whatever the…