Natalie Wood (Paperback)

~ Gavin Lambert (Author) "Shortly after eleven p.m. on November 6, 1917 (New Style calendar), the Bolsheviks seized power by storming government buildings and the Winter Palace in Petrograd..." (more)
Key Phrases: Natalie Wood, New York, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Unlike the sexually explicit Natasha, by Suzanne Finstad, or Lana Wood's Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister, Lambert's take on the luminous star of Gypsy and West Side Story is a relatively discreet, affectionate examination of Wood's short, turbulent life. Groomed by a fanatically controlling stage mother, Wood (1938â€"1981) enchanted audiences in 1946's Tomorrow Is Forever and prompted Louella Parsons to proclaim, "Natalie Wood eats your heart out." Lambert follows her from such childhood triumphs as Miracle on 34th Street to her breakthrough adult part opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Wood's overlapping affairs with Rebel director Nicholas Ray and cast member Dennis Hopper, and brief romance with Elvis Presley, will be familiar material to aficionados. But Lambert reveals deep sensitivity and understanding of her development as an actress, and he's one of the few authors to capture the depth and beauty of her relationship with Robert Wagner. Lambert also effectively highlights Wood's shrewd professional moves, including her pretense to boss Jack Warner that she didn't want to star in Splendor in the Grass, because she knew he would refuse to let her appear in it if she displayed enthusiasm. The shooting of Wood's film with Robert Redford, Inside Daisy Clover, has special authenticity, since Lambert wrote the screenplay and witnessed her frustrations after several crucial voice-overs were cut from the final print. Details regarding Wood's tragic drowning are inevitably speculative and vital questions remain unanswered. But Lambert eloquently clarifies the self-destructive reasons behind Wood's addictions and insecurities, and in the end, readers will feel they truly know the subject more than they do in most biographies. 65 photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Most critics agree with The Washington Post that Natalie Wood "is splendid in every way." Capturing the real essence of another person is virtually impossible, especially when immersed in celebrity drama and pretense. In this moving and thorough examination of Wood's groundbreaking career and too-short life, Lambert, an accomplished novelist whose Inside Daisy Clover provided the basis for one of Wood's films, has come close to the impossible. With great empathy, he explores Wood the movie star and Wood the person, pointing out that all too often even she couldn't distinguish between the two. Natalie Wood, concludes the New York Times Book Review, "could be a model for a new way of looking at and thinking about today's movie stars."

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Back Stage Books; 1st edition (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823088294
• ISBN-13: 978-0823088294
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #771,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Flop, January 12, 2004

By	Mara Kurtz (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Natalie Wood: A Life (Hardcover)

As a devoted Natalie Wood fan (she was my childhood hero), I looked forward to reading a bio filled with new information and written by a friend who enjoyed a "twenty-year friendship" with Natalie. What a disappointment!
The book is a bore from start to finish. There are far too many stories about Hollywood wannabes and an endless rehash of details about her mother, father and sisters. There are no meaningful insights, no interesting details revealed.
Lambert's writing is so awkward frequently had to reread the sentence page. Paragraph transitions are disjointed as well, and there are many disconcerting examples of odd word useage such as: "Everett Sloane...had sounded authentically Hebrew in the small part of a rabbi in Morningstar." Authentically Hebrew?
His numerous inaccuracies are disturbing as well. One wonders whether Lambert actually watched Natalie's films before writing the book.
The premise of "Marjorie Morningstar," for example, concerns a wealthy Jewish girl's dreams of breaking away from family tradition. Marjorie's lover, played by Gene Kelly as the the son of highly respected Jewish parents (his father is a judge), tries, in his own way, to escape family expectations.
Had the author bothered to see this film he would never have written "For Wouk to make Marjorie (nee Morgenstern) Jewish seems more a gimmick than an essential part of her star-is-not-born story, and in the movie the Jewish element is so diluted that it has no effect on her WASP lover, who's only momentarily restive at the Morgenstern's Passover dinner."
Skip this one. Suzanne Finstad's "Natasha" is a far more interesting and well written exploration of Natalie's life.

32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A tawdry betrayal......, January 22, 2004

By	rynegold (South Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Natalie Wood: A Life (Hardcover)

For me at least, this book is a huge disappointment. Who could possibly be interested in reading about Natalie Wood's gay male secretary Marty Crowley's sordid encounter with a call boy? Or page after Page of cruel unsubstantiated attempts to character assassinate and "out" Scott Marlowe - an actor the young Natalie Wood was in love with, who is not alive to defend himself?
Gavin Lambert, who has written about his own homosexual affairs, goes to extreme and transparent lengths to try to establish that his friend Robert Wagner (for whom I believe, he wrote this book) is a virile heterosexual - even including a sleazy account of a supposed encounter between Wagner and a (Japanese?) prostitute. Who are they kidding?
There are innumerable tasteless and pointless disjointed incidents of Natalie allegedly drunk and "swishing her tail" in front of men - a nasty ruse by Lambert, on behalf (perhaps?) of Robert Wagner, to try to shift the blame to Natalie for her horrible drowning and to deflect attention away from Wagner's suspicious and disgraceful behavior that night. What kind of "friend" of Natalie Wood's - as Lambert claims to be - would write a book about her to make a case that her father, who she loved dearly and who looks just like her, was not her biological parent? Lambert also trashes Natalie's mother and her sister Lana with tacky family gossip apparently provided by Wagner.

This book is a disaster: ditto its ghost writer.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Ludicrious Attempt To Have The Last Word, July 28, 2006

By	Gypsy "muir maiden" (Canada) - See all my reviews

Well, I just received Gavin Lambert's book on Natalie Wood, and after trudging through this monotonous, overblown biography, the conclusion is as follows: it's boring as hell! (I can't say I haven't been warned). This is the "wonderful" biography of Natalie that is supposed to set the record straight? It boasts 78 photos, but instead of being included in a glossy pictures section, they are widespread on various pages in the book so that they appear grainy. It seems to me that it was written as a rebuttal, and to paint Lana Wood as a greedy, vicious person (she was obviously not interviewed), and to make childish slaps at her, when she was not given the opportunity to tell her side of it. Robert Wagner seems threatened by anyone who knew Natalie before he, Lambert and Mart Crowley did - dismissing all of the people Natalie befriended before who offered their insights in "Natasha: The Biography Of Natalie Wood" as vultures who barely made her aquaintance and who are weaving fantasies about her. Basically, Wagner is uncomfortable with the aspects of Natalie's life that he was not involved in. It doesn't really attempt to get behind Natalie's persona any, like "Natasha" did, and of course, it doesn't acknowledge Natalie's love for Jimmy Williams, her first boyfriend, the rape by a famous actor, or what happened on the night of her death, hastily tying up loose ends and making her death sound so simple. Lambert wrote this book for Wagner, there's no question, and Natasha and Courtney are hardly mentioned at all. Did Lambert actually do any in-depth research? As well, there are allegations that Nick Gurdin may not have been Natalie's or Lana's father, and then there's Natasha Lofft, who has not proven with DNA that she is actually Natalie's half sister, but Wagner and the girls have no problem believing that she is, but they dismiss Suzanne Finstad's book as speculation and trash? I'll believe this claimant's story when I see proof! At least Finstad was able to remain somewhat objective and unbiased, since she did not know Natalie (and she did try to get Wagner's input, but he refused) which is obviously not the case with this pathetic attempt at a so-called "definitive" biography. Much of the book appears to be written quickly, but at least it does name the film Natalie turned down, which was reputed to have the actor who raped her in the cast. And of course, it has to dispel all the allegations of Wagner's sexual orientation, and what played the role in the demise of his first marriage to Natalie (heaven forbid that anyone attempt to tarnish the reputation of Prince Valiant).

As much of a disappointment as this book is, I'm glad I purchased it so I can compare it to "Natasha" and Lana's book to try to decipher what is closer to the truth. At least I didn't have to spend too much money on it!

Whatever the truth, I hope that Natalie is at peace.