<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: natural beauty
Review: I am fan of Natalie Wood since I saw, as a child, movie "Splendor in the grass". She was beautifull and so much different then the other "star-system" actresses. A long time I could not find some interesting article regarding her life and tragic death so I was surelly suprised when I read "Natasha". I have read it in one breath. I have read it earlier that she was famous in all the hollywood parties and that she was rebel. Thats why I was suprised when I`ve read that she was connected to her family and children. Maybe she was captivated by her mentally abused childhood as the author presented, and she was searhing for true love. I was very suprised when I heard the editors preview regarding the bisexual activity of Robert Wagner. The author was just indirectly show us the possible, "shocking" divorce reason of their first marriage. I was more suprise that she returned to him after that "compromised position" she saw. The book is very interesting but only thing it is not such clear to me is RJ. According to the author, they were really in love and he was quait and nice man. But Finstad is not paid so much attention to him, as he was not interested her. What is still question for me is that relationship with C. Walken on that day when she drowned. Is in Hollywood really ordinary thing to be bisexual?
Rating: 
Summary: What every Natalie Wood fan should have!!
Review: i did think that this book brought a lot of interesting facts to light. it really does deatil her life. however, i felt that these details got quite boring and suzanne finstad was much more interested in explaining all of natalie's neurosis and fears in repetitive detail than let the reader discover it on their own.
overall, it was a strain to finish this book.
Rating:
Summary: An ironic tribute
Review: I didn't discover Natalie Wood until just before Suzanne Finstead's novel was released. I saw a preview for the E! True Hollywood story of Natalie (or 'Natasha') and was mesmerized by her incredible stare. Although many critics focus on the controversy of Finstead's carefully worded descriptions of the last weekend of Natalie's life and subsequent events, the author provides an incredibly well-researched view of the life of an intense yet ill-fated superstar. As for the material regarding Natalie's drowning, Finstead's argument presents a multitude of room for reasonable doubt that her death was 'accidental.' The irony exists before, during and after Natalie Wood's life, and is very thought provoking, not only in Natalie's case, but in general that life is beyond control, particularly for those pushed into (and cursed with) fame. Regardless of any position on Natalie Wood's work, her talent, and the events leading to her death, this book is entirely enjoyable and should be appreciable to any reader.
Rating:
Summary: natural beauty
Review: I read "Natasha" in late February of 2003, immediately after being introduced to "West Side Story". I have always known OF Natalie Wood, especially since I was named after her, but I have never really seen her adult work. Furthermore, unlike other screen legends of yesteryear, Natalie Wood's star has not been exploited and endlessly marketed, like it has been with other screen greats (ie Marilyn Monroe), so the allure surrounding her and her seemingly mysterious demeanor lured me into reading this insightful and honest biography.
At best, "Natasha" is a labor of love. Suzanne Finstad has clearly done SOME research, be it gossip magazines or not. You can't blame her either, because Natalie was a very private person. It's hard to dig up interviews or "objective" features on her. The good part is that Finstad knows this, and as a result has put in effort to interview many people close to Natalie, like actors Robert Blake and Robert Redford, as well as "insiders" in the film business (publicists, hair dressers, agents, casting directors, etc.). Perhaps the most interesting anecdotes and tidbits are given by Lana, Natalie's own sister. Lana has written her own memoir about her famous sibling, but the writing was a tad vapid and bland. Finstad presents Lana's stories in a better light.
My favorite thing about this book is its division into different parts of Natalie's life, from child actress to legendary movie star, from rebellious teenager to dedicated mother. Finstad does this by drawing a unique parallel between the three Wood sisters and Chekhov's own characters in the Russian fable, "Three Sisters". Also, the rare pictures and photographs featured in between the novel's chapters would delight any fan.
All in all, "Natasha" is a very touching biography written with close attention to detail. Suffice to say, Ms. Wood lived a dramatic life, ended by a most tragic occurence. But her memory lives on through her wonderful films and her talented family, as well as through the many children (like myself) lucky enough to be named after such a ravishing, talented person.
Rating:
Summary: Attention-Grabbing look at the life of Natalie Wood
Review: If you are interested in the life of Natalie Wood, this is the book for you. The book starts off by telling the story of Natalie's mother Maria and she came from Russia to China and then to the United States with her first husband and daughter Olga in the early 1930's. It then goes into how Maria met Nicoli Zakharenko and had Natalia or Natasha as Natalie was called. The book then goes into the early childhood of Natalie Wood living an idyllic life in Santa Rosa California playing with her best friend Edwin Canavari before leaving for Hollywood to be a movie star after appearing in Happy Land. The book then goes into Natalie's early life in Hollywood, being rejected for many parts before being cast in Tomorrow Is Forever playing a Austrian orphan raised by Orson Wells after the Nazis kill her parents. The book then goes into how the producers changed her name from Natasha Gurdin to Natalie Wood and the struggles Natalie had to find a part until at the age of six being cast in not one, but three movies shooting at the same time. The author tells about Natalie's adjustments to playing a New Yorker in Miracle On 34th Street, an English Child in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as well as an orphan in Driftwood. The next part of the book is jam-packed talking about the different rolls that Natalie played in a short time. The book also describes how an accident on the set of her movie Scudda Hoo Scudda Hay changed the way she felt about her mother and acting forever. During a scene Natalie was supposed to cross a bridge in the pouring rain and the bridge was supposed to fall and she was supposed to land in the water underneath. Somebody dropped the bridge too soon and Natalie's left wrist was broken. The next section of the book details Natalie's relationship with men, making more movies and her increasing fixation on a man she met when she was 12 and told everybody that she was going to marry-Robert Wager. During her teens Natalie rebelled against her mother and started dating boys-sometimes men and more than one at a time. During her teens, Natalie was even engaged to several of these fellows. When she was 15 though she started on an affair with 46-year-old Nick Ray and constantly bugged him to be in his new movie Rebel Without a Cause. He was reluctant to cast her though, but after a car accident with one of her girlfriends and Dennis Hopper (whom she was also sleeping with) Ray gave her the part. Ironically, the part that made her a star might not have had the same impact except for the untimely death of lead actor James Dean. The book also describes a very traumatic event in Natalie's life. The rape she experienced at the hands of a very famous movie star. When Natalie was 18, she had a plan to meet and marry Robert Wager. Her plan was to have his agent become her agent as well. This plan worked. They met at a party shortly after Natalie turned 18, but nothing came of it, they danced and that was it. A year later however, they met again and sparks flew. They spend that night on his boat. Several months later, they were married. The marriage did not last very long and they slit up after only five years. The next part of the book Natalie is again catapulted into stardom with the movie West Side Story. Even with this, though Natalie is depressed because she could not get her marriage to RJ (Wagner's nickname) to work. She dates several men before meeting and marrying Richard Gregson and having daughter Natasha. Natalie is not happy at this point and separates from Richard before doing Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice. Soon after Natalie broke up with Richard, she re meets Wagner and they remarry in 1972. Shortly afterwards they have a daughter named Courtney or as Natalie called her "The most wanted baby in the world." The last part of the story Natalie is contented. She is married to the love of her life the mother of two and the stepmother of one (Wagner's daughter Kate) and is making movies. Fast forward to Thanksgiving weekend 1981. The Wagners go out on their new boat The Splendor with Natalie's recent costar Christopher Walken. The threesome spend the weekend drinking and on Friday night Natalie disappeared after a fight with Robert. Wagner and Walken waited at least 1.5 hours before calling the coastguard to tell them about the disappearance and at about 8:30 the next morning Natalie was found not far from the boat dead of hypothermia. The author of the book make a point several times that RJ was stupid to wait that long to contact the coastguard because of the fact that Natalie was deathly afraid of water and had since birth, a fact reiterated constantly in different stories and events told about in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing mystery around her death and a fast-paced life
Review: My mom sent me this book - Natalie Wood was before my time. I was surprised at the sex and drugs in Hollywood even in the 50s! The 2 best parts of the book are reading about Natalie's very eccentric Russian mother who was a pushy stage mom, and reading about Natalie's lifelong fear of drowning in dark water which did eventually come true. The mystery around her death is very intriguing. Was it just a drunken mistake that her husband RJ did not to call the Coast Guard earlier? Could the people on neighboring boats have saved her if only their inflatable dinghy had not been stored away deflated? If she hadn't been drinking heavily that night, would Natalie have fallen overboard? Like all accidents, there are a lot of "what ifs." She had a very interesting life, with lots of husbands and lovers, and lots of friends who were also famous movie stars like James Dean. The book does get a bit graphic talking about the seamier side of stardom.
Rating: 
Summary: "Fascinating Subject Leaves Many Questions"
Review: Natalie Wood was one of my favorite actresses and I was shocked by her drowning death at such a young age under such strange circumstances. I was anxious to read this book and had mixed feeling about it once I was finished. The writer dealt excessively with the obsessive behavior of the Russian mother who acted like Natalie/Natasha was part of her own psyche. The woman was truly evil, as evidenced by a horrifying tale of her plucking the wings off a butterfly to get her child to cry on cue. As a reader, you need to patiently plough through a lot of overwrought writing to glean interesting facts like that. In addition to a brutal description of the rape itself, there were several references to the "Hollywood star" who attacked Natalie and is apparantly still alive since the writer "can't believe he can live with himself." I find it hard to believe that hotel records could not have been researched for a stronger clue to this man's identity. Was the writer paid off by the actor's children? If you are at all a Hollywood follower, you can pretty much figure out who this person is (at least I think I have anyway) and indeed his family name is very powerful. Another weakness is that the drowning sequence stories drag on for pages, are ultimately inconclusive, and focus excessively on Natalie's fear of drowning in dark water. We read about this fear throughout the book in excessively purplish prose. I found it amazing to read how much alcohol was drunk by the four people on board, however, over the days leading up to the tragedy. And the image of RJ leaning over the boat and mocking a drowning Natalie is truly chilling, though not totally convincing. Overall, a pretty good read -- chock full of details that, while meticulous, are repeated so often that you get tired of reading them. I wish there was more information about how her children fared after her death. She seemed to be a wonderful mother and I wonder how the daughters have reacted to all the rumors that continue to swirl around her death. The book definitely helped me to see more sides of Natalie and to understand why she always looked so serious in her movies; she did not have an easy life, despite all the furs and glamour. I wish she had received an Academy Award for "Spendor in the Grass." She certainly deserved it.
Rating: 
Summary: A waste of time
Review: Noel Coward used to perform a song he wrote called "Don't Put Your Daughter On the Stage Mrs Worthington". It's a pity Natalie Wood's mother didn't take note when she first started coaching her little daughter to be nice to people (men mostly) so they would put little Natasha in movies. There is something obscene about about a child denied a childhood and normal emotional developement in order for a mother's selfish ambitions to be fulfilled - especially when that little girl is from then on the family bread winner. Suzanne Finstad's book was a best seller and deservedly so.No stone was left unturned to sus out the real Natalie Wood, her desire to be a great actress, her friendship with James Dean who represented acting as a serious craft, something Natalie had not been exposed to before. Her relationship with Warren Beatty, her two marriages to Robert Wagner and the real reason for the the fist marriage breakup with Wagner, and even a detailed account of the last day of her life and tragic death.
The ruthlessness of movie directors is aptly displayed here too, men driven by a need to bring the picture in under budget -resorting to behaviour that in one instance nearly cost Wood her life and in others displaying total insensitivity.
Natalie Wood amazingly survived the nightmares of her youth and was universally well liked by those who knew her and worked with her. She strove to have a normal life without ever really knowing what that was, and was a deeply caring, compassionate human being as, wife, mother and friend to those who loved her.
Suzanne Finstad interviewd hundreds of people, family, friends and colleagues who shared their vivid recollections of a great lady who was - Natalie Wood.
Rating:
Summary: NATASHA brings Natalie Wood to life
Review: Suzanne Finstad's thorough research and sympathy for her subject make for a thoroughly engrossing and illuminating look at the public and private life of Natalie Wood. The reader is left with a vivid idea of who Natalie truly was as a person, making the ultimate tragedy of her drowning that much more painful to read about.
Almost without variation, Natalie Wood was regarded by those that knew her as a person with an exceedingly kind nature, and a nimble mind as well. (I,for one, was not aware of how whip-smart she was.) It is easy to imagine that, had her Russian-born, obssessed stage mother not singlemindedly forced the life of a movie star on her favored daughter, Natasha Gurdin could have had a happy, fulfilled life, going to college and marrying her true love. She never had a choice of what she was going to be, and the wrongheaded selfishness of a mother using a child to realize her own uncaptured dreams is made poignantly clear in the book. Although Natalie Wood's growth as a person throughout her life is illustrated, it seems to me that she never was able to grow into her true self. Her identity was so intertwined with her mother's, and with what her mother believed a Movie Star should be, that she probably never felt truly comfortable in her own skin. It is only through becoming a mother that Natalie finds true contentment.
Natalie's numerous romances (often with famous men) reveal a person who was searching for something in a man that she could not find in herself; the book gives the impression that it was Robert Wagner's easygoing steadiness that led her to marry him not once, but twice. Her outgoing, emotional vivacity complemented his charming, old Hollywood ways.
It was truly hard to get through the last section of the book; although I was very curious to know what information the author had uncovered regarding Natalie's death, and I could not put the book down, by the time I reached that point, I felt I had such an understanding of Natalie's personality that it hurt to read about her mysterious death. Many unsettling details are brought to light in the book, the most disturbing of which to me, is that the people in the boat closest to Natalie's yacht heard a woman screaming for help in the water and a man's mocking reply. Along with the timeline that develops over the bizarre weekend of Natalie's death, and the friction between Natalie, her husband Robert Wagner, and possible lover Christopher Walken, makes one very suspicious that someone got away with murder. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves biographies or nonfiction or anyone who has ever wondered: What really happened to Natalie Wood?
Rating:
Summary: A waste of time
Review: This book is trash. It exploits and sensationalizes the life of one of Hollywood's most charming and fascinating people. There's a reason the Wagners didn't participate in the production of this biography. I'm certain Finstad's disregard for the truth is it. Of course Lana Wood likes this bio. She was always as out to get her sister as the tabloid press! If you have any respect or admiration for Natalie Wood, don't buy this nonsense. Rent her movies instead.
<< 1 >>
|
