Customer Reviews

Looking for Gatsby

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Not knowing quite what to expect, I was happy to read a very warm, candid story by an actor whose work I admire a great deal. As Dunaway told her story, I could not help but think that her body of work would stand side by side with those actors of her generation who are so glorified -- Beatty, Nicholson, et. al. That she is not appreciated in the same way as those actors explains her vulnerability all the more. After reading this book, I would definitely have her over for dinner.

First of all, let me say that as "celebrity biographies" go, this is one of the better ones. Rather than produce a mere catalogue of people, places, and events, Faye Dunaway gives her readers impressionistic peeks into her life; her words are used like water-colored pastels to create a pleasing but not too controversial work. Although she overemphasizes pop-psychology explanations, Faye Dunaway still manages to bring her readers closer to Faye Dunaway the Woman and the Actress while chipping away at Faye Dunaway the Icon. It's a nice compliment to her work on film.

With startling honesty, Dunaway intimately details her fascinating life. The book does lapse into mild self-indulgence at times, but her introspection reveals an interesting mind. Her fierce determination and dedication is vividly depicted, hinting at the price she paid for stardom, as well as painting an interesting portrait of what it is to be a female actor of her calibre and over fifty in Hollywood today.

Faye Dunaways' book enjoyably takes the reader from her birth in Florida through her life and into Hollywood. The book is very well written with numerous stories of her life with others in Hollywood, her affairs and how she delt with and perceived other stars. A enjoyable read.

Faye Dunaway is one of the greatest American actresses of our lifetime. She has appeared in some of the most popular and successful films in Hollywood history from "Bonnie and Clyde" to "Chinatown", and she won the Academy Award in 1976 for her searing portrayal of a nasty network executive in "Network". She is also known for playing Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest", probably the greatest performance by someone playing a real-life figure.
In this stunning memoir Faye discusses her personal life, growing up in Texas, and her eventual jont to Hollywood where she made it big as an actress. Her films are discussed in detail and she doesn't hold anything back from the reader. Her battles with famed director Roman Polanski, who directed her in "Chinatown", is discussed, as well as her feud with Bette Davis who starred along with Faye in a 1976 TV movie. The most informative part of the book is her chapter on "Mommie Dearest" and how she states she should have never played Crawford. She writes on how hard the role was, a role that was her most challenging, and how she wished the director of that film would have held her back in her performance. It was "Mommie Dearest" that would eventually destroy Faye's career as she became typecast as a tough woman and Hollywood casting agents couldn't get Faye's portrayl of Crawford out of their minds.
Faye also talks about her failed TV series that she had on in the early '90's and how she wishes the network could have been more supportive of her and that show.
A well-written book and a page turner, "Looking For Gastby" is a must-read for anyone wanting to know anything about Hollywood history as well as info on a fine and talented actress.

Being a long-time fan of Miss Dunaway, I bought this the day it was released and read it straight through when I got home. Frankly, I wasn't expecting much. I always got the impression she has no sense of humor, particularly about herself. I also figured she was writing this for the money, and it would be a typical take-the-money-and-run, say-nothing bland autobiography like most of the other celebrity junk that's out there. Boy was I wrong! While Miss Dunaway is certainly a very serious person, the book was pretty candid, the good and the bad, covering topics I didn't think she'd cover much like Mommie Dearest, Marcello Mastriani, her two marriages, etc. She covers it all pretty thoroughly and candidly. While this book is certainly not a "tell-all" or at the Shelley Winters level (thank goodness), it's pretty thorough. She also covers a lot of her early career, college, and her growing up in rural Florida, a lot of information you can't get from magazine articles or prior media materials about her. It was very, very well done, well written, and is obviously must-read material for any fan or someone interested in the premier actresses of her generation. You won't be disappointed. It also has some great photographs in the center section, and Terry O'Neill did the cover. Great stuff!

Faye Dunaway, a terrific actress, should, as they say, not quit her day job. Her book is poorly written and redundant, redundant, redundant! A superb technician on the stage, she paradoxically has a room-temperature IQ, to judge from this memoir. And her accounts of some parts of her life, such as the filming of Roman Polanski's Chinatown, are self-serving. It's too bad we never get beneath the veneer in this boring read.