[Click To Enlarge]
Email A Friend - Gift Reminder |
Pieces of My Heart: A Life
Availability:
In Stock
Price:
$25.95
$0.18*
|
| Part No: | 0061373311 |
| Manufacturer: | HarperEntertainment |
| MFG Part: | |
| Customer Rating: | 4.0 / 5.0 |
|
|
| A total waste of words | 2010-08-31 | 1 / 5 |
|
This self-bloated man who refuses to enlighten us on the mysterious death of his late-great wife, Natalie Wood, attempts in this late life account to categorize himself as a Hollywood great. This man wants to coast out of life as something he's not. He was a sub-standard actor and according to his book, an actor who never made even one film that puts him in the class of greats he writes about. He was not a biggie but "hung with some of them" and married one of them twice.
I had to read this book after reading Goodbye Natalie Goodbye Splendour, a book that describes a man who obviously cannot describe himself without embellishment and outright lies.
What anyone sees in this piece of lies is beyond me. I am an avid reader of biographies and this has got to be the most fictional, self-inflated, vulgar, pretentious one I've ever closed the last page on. |
| Entertaining, Candid, Surprising | 2010-08-05 | 4 / 5 |
|
| I bought this book without many expectations, but found it extremely entertaining and almost uncomfortably candid. I am very familiar with the fact that most celeb bios are largely ghosted and filtered so much that the truth is the first casualty. But my very strong sense of this book was that Wagner was sharing his truth as much as he was capable of. As a huge fan of Old Hollywood, I really enjoyed his inside stories and found his account of the tragic passing of Natalie Wood truthful and heartfelt. Anyone with a good BS detector can see through the passages where the author is clearly trying to present himself or others in light that might be shining a little more brightly than was the case, but overall there is an awful lot of self-depracation in this work, much more than the ususal Hollywood memoir. This is a read that is an awful lot of fun and deserves to be on the bookshelves of anyone who adores movies. |
| Probably should have been published after his death... | 2010-07-31 | 4 / 5 |
|
I picked-up and read two books during a week at the beach -- one by a journalist who interviewed President Gerald Ford during the years before his death, who stipulated that the content could not be published during his lifetime ("Write It When I'm Gone"); and, the other being Robert Wagner's "Pieces of My Heart." After reading the reviews posted on this site of Wagner's book one has to wonder if he now wishes that his memoir had been published after his death as well. Wow! I am ever-so-thankful than my modest life is not in the public eye as the meanness of some of these reviewers is something to behold.
As for myself, I liked the book. After reading so many that are simply either compilations of the star's own press clippings or butterfly kisses to everyone the person ever met -- this one was straightforward, honest and probably as accurate of a star's autobiography as one can expect. This is a man who spent his whole life and career playing golf, sleeping with, socializing and acting with a virtual who's who of the industry. One cannot help but thououghly enjoy his behind the scenes candor and insight of these talented personalities.
Yes, the book would have portrayed Robert Wagner in a more positive light and been more palatable to many older/conservative readers if it had been sanitized by an editor or press agent. Thankfully, Mr. Wagner is at the age where one says: "What the hell, that's the way it was." Good Lord, if these readers will think back on their own undergraduate days and some of the antics we all did at that young age -- and consider what more we would have done if we had the money and access to the stars and perks he had -- well, I'm not so sure they/we would have been angels either.
I intend to use my Netflix account to order a number of the films he discusses and watch the interactions of the actors he describes, and enjoy the insight his book brings to the history of the movie industry during the decades in which he acted. I especially enjoyed the aspects of the book where he discusses his growth as an actor -- what worked, and didn't and how he learned from those older and more experienced.
R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University |
| Awesome book | 2010-07-30 | 5 / 5 |
|
I found the book to be very interesting, well written and truthful regarding. Natalies death. What a wonderful life RJ has lead, to have found great love twice. Congratulations on the way you took over raising the children without
Sending them off to be taken care or raised by a boarding school. Natalie would be proud of both you and Jill. |
| Mr. Wagner's admirers will love this book!!!! | 2010-07-27 | 5 / 5 |
|
| For anyone who is an admirer of his you will enjoy this read from cover to cover. I like how honest he was with everything. It's so interesting that I read it straight through to the end. The photos are treasures. |
)
