Sinatra: The Life.(Brief Article)(Book Review)

Sinatra: The Life ANTHONY SUMMERS AND ROBBYN SWAN. Knopf, $26.95 (580p) ISBN 0-375-41400-2

The second collaboration for the husband-and-wife team (after their Nixon bio, The Arrogance of Power) is hardly the first book about Frank Sinatra, and despite their claim to be the only objective biographers to address the crooner's final years, the book's later chapters feel rushed compared with the lengthy passages covering Sinatra's well-trod glory days. Furthermore, since Sinatra's musical genius and acting skills have been thoroughly analyzed by previous writers, Summers and Swan put in minimal effort there. Where their work does stand out is in firming up the evidence of …