This is the story of Natalie Wood's life, starting before she was born when her mother immigrated to the US. She was already married and had one child, Olga. Her husband had come before her and informed her he had a mistress when she arrived. After some time her mother, Maria, divorced her first husband and took up with two other men, eventually marrying Natalie's father while also keeping her affair going with the other man.
Natalie's mother had seen a fortune teller who had told her that her second child would be known around the world and would be beautiful. When Natalie was born, she did everything in her power to make sure the fortune she had been told came true. She was the driving force behind Natalie's career, at least when she was younger. She would lie and manipulate whoever she had to - including Natalie - to get Natalie parts in film. The fortune teller had also said that she - Maria - would die by drowning in dark waters. Maria imparted that information in such a way that Natalie grew up believing that is how she would die and was deathly afraid of the water for her entire life. Yet, when parts came up that required Natalie to get into water, her mother would force her because otherwise "she would lose the part". Her mother had also told her that she was too small to have children and if she ever sat on a man's lap she would become pregnant. She did this in an effort to make Natalie afraid of men so that she'd always be with Maria. She would use traumatizing events and acts to manipulate Natalie so that Natalie grew up very superstitious and fearful of so many things. It was heartbreaking to read a lot of what her mother did to her. And her focus was so much on Natalie that the rest of her family suffered. For much of Natalie's life, she was the sole support for her entire family and she felt the responsibility for that at a very young age.
The author wrote this book after doing interviews with "more than 400 people" who knew Natalie - her friends and even her family. With very rare exception, everyone who met Natalie adored her. The few that didn't necessarily feel that way had more of a feeling that she was standoffish on a particular set but those close to her would say that it was a difficult time for her or that she was insecure about the role. Like I said, most people thought the world of Natalie.
Robert Wagner was noted as having not participated, despite several attempts on the author's part to interview him. It's worth noting that Mr. Wagner has said that there are things in the book that are "fabricated" and that on two separate occasions in the book the author states that "through his reps" Mr. Wagner denies specific things included in the book.
That's one of the things that made the book ring more true to me. Anytime there were conflicting "recollections" of events or periods in Natalie's life, the author included all sides of the argument, so to speak. It wasn't a one-sided "this is what I believe" kind of book.
She goes in great detail about the events leading up to Natalie's death. She points out that one witness came forward when there was the possibility of monetary gain but also that Robert Wagner hasn't ever publicly disputed the accusations made by this witness. Ultimately she let's the reader draw their own conclusion, not just about her death but about her life. It was a very interesting read for me. It was by no means a fast read but it was one that had my interest from the beginning to the end. I would definitely recommend it.
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