Rating: 
Summary: I don't care about the rest, this book is fun!
Review: I have read "Mommie Dearest" around 5 times, I would say. It is a thoroughly absorbing and entertaining read. I never really questioned Christina Crawford's motivation, either. And I guess I believe her accounts, for the most part... It is easy to discern Joan's rigid, dominatrix personality in her movies from the late 40s and 50s. It comes through strong! For those people who criticize Christina for her ethics, bitterness, dishonesty, and tarnishing her mother's image, I kind of want to say "Get over it!" I love Joan Crawford, absolutely; she is one of my very favorites, and not because I thought she was necessarily a nice person or a good mother, either. I have always thought she was probably a neurotic ego-maniac, and that is one aspect I find so fascinating about her. And that is largely what Christina's book has described (and validated). It may be viewed as lurid and low-grade, slummy at times, but who cares? The book did nothing to diminish my affection for Joan. Besides that, if Christina claims this to be her life, let her write about it! In a way, it helps to perpetuate the incredible Crawford mystique: to me, Joan comes across as one of the most deranged, self-possessed individuals I have ever read about. And has anybody ever read Joan's own autobiography - "My Way of Life"? Geeez! Talk about self-deluding, she is so full of herself, it is quite insane. However, I loved it for this very reason. (Among other inanities, Joan describes how ladies should always sit on hard surfaces because soft seats "spread the hips"!) "Mommie Dearest" does not damage Joan Crawford's reputation at all. It is IMMENSELY entertaining (I am always able to read it in one sitting) and interesting, with its Hollywood backdrop observations. And as far as Christina's character goes, unless you have been there, do not presume to judge. She has given us a cult classic! Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: Fasten Your Seatbelts, It's Bumpy Out There
Review: While this book is certainly an interesting read and I suspect that there is basis for Christina Crawford's claims of child abuse, I'm not 100% sure that Joan Crawford's behavior would have been considered full out child abuse during the time it occurred. As a baby boomer, I remember the discipline in my home and the homes of friends. In the glorious '50's, temporal punishment was often considered quite acceptable. So I can't say that I really view this tome as an indictment against child abuse per se. My advice is that if you are looking for a classical case study of child abuse, SKIP THIS BOOK. However, if it is your intention to read about the complexities involved in grabbing the proverbial gold ring and then losing it, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ.
What is interesting about this book are the ups and downs of Joan Crawford's career and her tenacious and single minded efforts to revive it during the slumps and maintain it during the high points. Her unconventional take on morality amd social propriety make me wonder if Joan was really acting during some of her more manic roles or if art was simply imitating life. Even winning an Academy Award as that mother of all mothers Mildred Pierce proved to be a temporary bandaid while she imitated her fantasy life as a mother. Later she was dealing with poor roles, and was relegated to parts which related to her own mid-life crises.
Aside from the legendary 'no wire hangers' anecdote, this book reflects the sad state of affairs that was Joan Crawford's life as she began her ultimate descent from super stardom since most of the tales of serious abuse appear to have coincided with the most trying moments related to her career. A favorite anecdote in the book relates to J.C.'s assuming her daughter's saop opera role. As a pre-teen viewer I watched the great star and I was convinced she was clearly losing her grip on reality even back then. The backstory as to how she assumed that role is far more interesting than her bizarre performance.
When I started writing this review, I kept thinking that I was a tepid Crawford fan at best. That's false. I buy everything that is published about her, I have most of her movies, and I know her life history. The truth is that there are actresses I like better, but JC definitely was more interesting and complex in life than she ever was in the movies. This woman was a lot of things, but never boring. That's why I keep coming back.
Rating: 
Summary: Spoiled Hollywood Brat !
Review: Poor little attention seeking, ego starved Christina... Left out of mommie's will, couldn't make it as an actress, had no talent of her own so cashes in on mom's success by writing the sordid and scandalous, "Mommie Dearest." Considering her motivation (revenge? money?) for writing this book, as well as the fact none of her siblings have complained of child abuse, I have major doubts about her credibility. She never offers any solid proof of abuse, just allegations. She whines and complains constantly like a typical spoiled brat, so much so that by the time I finished reading the book, I wanted to beat her with a wire hanger myself!
Rating:
Summary: How much is truth and how much is fiction?
Review: Good book and quite shocking and disturbing if all that abuse really did happen and I'm not saying it didn't but as with all tell all books I wonder how much of it was true and how much of it was made up just to make a buck off of some famous dead person and as I recall two of Joan Crawford's four adoptive children claimed she physically and verbally abused them but I read in a magazine and also heard on a TV news program that the other two said they weren't abused and that she was a good mother, so who is telling the truth and who isn't is hard to tell.
Rating: 
Summary: What Goes Around,Comes Around
Review: My mother was an avid Joan Crawford admirer, however the Crawford hard face and souless eyes always bothered me. So,when Mommie Dearest was released, I was NOT surprised about the sickening expose. Joan Crawford was born in poverty and was desperate to escape - Hollywood was the way out, and marrying first Douglas Fairbanks, who was a huge star at the time, was the first rung on the ladder to fame,next came Franchot Tone who was a well respected stage actor (his film career never matched his stage work),and then Pepsicola boss Alfred Steele,who had no idea what he was letting himself in for when he married Joan. She took his place place on the Pepsi board when Steele died - much to the horror of many board members.
This is also a very sad tale of people who have poor values,who don't repect themselves or others. The adopting of two children to continue with the "loving mother" myth was another role that Joan felt she needed to play. I did feel sorry for her when LB Mayer dumped her so cruelly. After all those years making mega bucks for the studio, they decided her time was up and marched off the lot ! At the end of the book we ask ourselves who WAS Joan Crawford ? The other question which always concerns me is:Do
the children of famous people have the right to share such searing exposes of their parents with us,the general public ? I refer to books by Crawford,BD Davis,and more recently,Lorna Luft.
There is no definate answer to that - although I have no doubt Christina Crawford felt justified, particularly after she and her brother were left out of Joans will !!
Crawford was a lonely, frightened woman who guarded her patch at the studio with ferocity. Doubtless ahe made her enemies, and perhaps this is why she took her neurosis and pathelogical mania out on her children. This is a truly amazing story - read it.
Rating:
Summary: If Your A Real Fan, You'll Be A Fan No Matter What!
Review: All I have to say is. Abuse happens all over the place, rich and famous and the poor, but people overlook the rich because they feel since they got all that money and living in mansions their happy, they may be happy materially, but not mentally. I'm glad Christina wrote the book, Joan only cared about herself, she married popular, prominent men to get to the top, and used her adopted children as publicity. She shouldn't of never had any kids, she couldn't even keep a man, how was she going to keep kids. The studios were so strict and controlling, that when stars like Joan and others got home they took the pain, frustration out on the kids, or maids or whoever was around, they couldn't fight the studio. All thing that gets me is that why does all these kids of movie stars write books after their movie parents die, they should write it when their alive so they can defend themselves, I know a lot of children written books and lied, because they were jealous of their parent success and they didn't make it like Marlene Dietrich's daughter, so they try to write a book so people can think less of that person. But if they really loved their parents they wouldn't of wrote the book, some things are left best unsaid, and just let the public believe those fake illusions and images the stars carry, but Christina Crawford needed to write this book, it needed to be told. Bette Davis daughter wrote a book when her mother was alive, it broke Bette Davis heart, but at least Bette was alive and could defend herself, but she didn't really say anything so it most of be true. Marlene Dietrich's daughter wrote a book, you can just tell how jealous she was of her mother because she wanted to be a movie stars and date stars but her mother did it, she just didn't have the talent, so you can tell by reading her book that she's jealous. Well, these book are fun to read, but if your a big fan of these stars, its going to hurt and you may not want to believe it, but you know what they say, famous people are like regular people, and you'll be surprised at what type of live they lead behind close door, just keep that in mind, you can still love them for their great talents, its going to be hard to like them after you read books like this, you'll look at them differently but if your a real fan, you'll be a fan no matter what, and realize these people weren't right in the head, and they paid for their sins.
Rating:
Summary: Double Standards
Review: Why is it that while many people believe children of abuse need to stop blaming their parents for their resulting difficulties, the very same people will then go on to point out what a hard time these parents had at the hands of THEIR parents? Is this not just a little contradictory? Yes, Joan Crawford would undoubtedly have come from a dysfunctional household, but so did Christina...yet she didn't turn into an abusing parent who terrorised her children. This book may not have done a thorough inspection and interpretation of Joan Crawford's life, but this was not its purpose. It does do this of Christina's life, about whom after all this book is about. Christina is not a disinterested objective observer, she understandably has emotions in response to the treatment she received at the hands of her mother, and this is what she writes about. GFT, please, if you want to pass judgment on someone in whose shoes you haven't walked, at least get their name right. This book is important in exploding not only Hollywood myths, but the ultimate myth that mothers would never treat their children in such a way. There are many non Hollywood mothers who do the same, under the guise of "discipline". And many siblings will have vastly different experiences within the same household. Ultimately it seems Christina has disgruntled many readers because she hasn't included a happy ending.
Rating:
Summary: The Original Hollywood Tell-All Trash Wallow
Review: MOMMIE DEAREST is a difficult work to evaluate because it is extremely problematic in almost every possible way. The great, on-going issue surrounding the book is whether or not Christina Crawford's allegations of child abuse are true. This is a matter of heated debate, and those who actually knew Joan Crawford are sharply divided in their reaction--which, given her love-her-or-hate-her persona is hardly surprising. Whatever your actual opinion may be, at the end of the day every one must acknowledge at least one thing: MOMMIE DEAREST is extremely one-sided. This is not to imply that child abuse can be excused under any circumstance, but the fact is that MOMMIE DEAREST doesn't place the abusive behavior it claims to expose in any legitimate context. Joan Crawford was herself a savagely abused, uneducated child who took control of her life and built a career that had few equals; it is hardly surprising, therefore, that she herself might have been an abusive parent with an almost hysterical need to control everything and everyone around her. But all we really learn of Joan Crawford from MOMMIE DEAREST is that she was controlling and abusive, for the book is a savage attack that reduces its target to something as one-dimensional as any 1930s shop-girl romance that Joan Crawford ever played. Perhaps the single most regrettable thing about MOMMIE DEAREST is that it stands in the way of a legitimate biography that might get at the complete truth of Joan Crawford, who she was behind the movie star mask, and why she was the person she ultimately became. A thorough inspection and interpretation of Crawford's life from a disinterested and intelligent point of view would provide a very welcome balance to Christina Crawford's extremely sordid yet perversely fascinating tale--but MOMMIE DEAREST has so colored public thinking about Joan Crawford that it now seems impossible for any one to reach beyond it to the full truth. In a literary sense, MOMMIE DEAREST has zero merit. Christina Crawford (or her ghost-writer, if some rumors are to be believed) is a sloppy writer with little style and still less sense of grammar and structure. Even so, and regardless of whether or not you believe any or all of Christina Crawford's allegations, it is a compelling read, for it appeals to the same animal instinct that forces us to gawk at horrific car wrecks: once you begin to read the book, your need to keep going becomes compulsive. Ultimately, I do have to recommend the book for sheer power and status as a pop-culture landmark--but I strongly urge you to keep your critical skills at the ready./GFT
Rating:
Summary: Garbage!
Review: I couldn't agree more with Christopher Bryant Olson's review.
I knew someone in New York who used to work in the publishing business. He told me that in the 70s, Christina was trying to get a book published about Hollywood in general. In this book were a few passages about her mother...in particular, the sensational "wire hanger" and rose garden stories. That stuff was picked out immediately and the company that eventually bought the rights hired a ghost author(!) to write what eventually became "Mommie Dearest." It's no coincedance that Christina's subsequent books were received so poorly. Doesn't that explain why this book is so well-written and enthralling? Do yourself a favor and don't buy this garbage!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book
Review: This is a classic book. I have to order another one because the one I have is so worn out and falling apart. It's the only book I can read over and over and not get bored. Something about it, it's just so intriguing. The movie "Mommie Dearest" is a joke, but the book is really Christina's autobiography and how child abuse can happen in even the most "glamorous" places. I wonder if she still has all those cruel letters Joan wrote to her while at boarding school? Imagine if she put one up on e-bay! I think Christina has a lot of credibility because so much of her claims can be verified. Her adoptive mother's appearances on talk shows drunk is obvious. And as far as Joan's insulting letters, I don't believe Christina sat down and made them up. I don't believe the book was written because Christina was cut out of the will. She doesn't try to hide the fact either. She talks about it in her book "Survivor", also a good read...
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