More Than Love
An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood
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3.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The “graceful, loving,” (The New York Times Book Review), never-before-told story of Hollywood icon Natalie Wood’s glamorous life, sudden death, and lasting legacy, written by her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner.
Natasha Gregson Wagner’s mother, Natalie Wood, was a child actress who became a legendary movie star, the dark-haired beauty of Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story. She and Natasha’s stepfather, the actor Robert Wagner, were a Hollywood it-couple twice over, first in the 1950s, and then again when they remarried in the 70s. To Natasha, she was, above all, a doting, loving mom.
But Natalie’s sudden death by drowning off Catalina Island at the age of forty-three devastated her family, turned Robert Wagner into a person of interest, and transformed a vibrant wife, mother, and actress into a figure of tragedy. The weekend has long been shrouded in rumors and scandalous tabloid speculation, but until now there has never been an account of how the events and their aftermath were experienced by Natalie’s beloved eldest daughter. Here, for the first time, is a“deeply intimate chronicle of life with her famous mother and how Wood’s death devastated the family” (Los Angeles Times).
Cutting through the shadow hanging over her mother’s legacy, More Than Love is a “poignant” (The Washington Post) tale of a daughter coming to terms with her grief, as well as a “revealing new look at Natalie Wood” (Good Morning America).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this heart-wrenching debut, actor and author Wagner (Natalie Wood: Reflections of a Legendary Life) pays loving tribute to her late mother, Hollywood legend Natalie Wood. Wagner was 11 years old and on a sleepover at her best friend's when she heard on the radio that the drowned body of her mother had been found near Catalina Island, Calif., on Nov. 29, 1981. But rather than casting her mother as a tragic character, Wagner sets aside the controversy surrounding Wood's death (friends and family believed that husband Robert Wagner was responsible for her death) to show a fiercely loving mother who wanted Natasha and her younger sister, Courtney, to enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood rather than follow in her footsteps as a child star. Wagner pulls no punches as she describes the repercussions of her mother's death her sister Courtney's attempts to self-medicate with drugs; and Natalie's estranged younger sister, Lana, who continues to believe that Wagner had something to with Natalie's death, are explored. Endearing details will humanize for readers this beloved Hollywood star, such as the petite Wood's love of lamb chops and beef bourguignon (but "right before a project she'd do a grapefruit fast"). Wagner's beautifully written and unashamedly emotional memoir is a love letter to Natalie Wood and an enduring gift to her fans.
