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Summary: Little Girl Lost
Review: "Natasha" is an engaging, often tragic, look at the life of screen siren Natalie Wood. Rather than focusing exclusively on her career as more scholarly biographies might have done, or indulging purely in the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death, Finstad manages to walk the line- factual without being dry; insightful without being too garrulous. The author weaves a number of themes throughout the work: Chekov's three sisters, the schism between Natasha and her screen persona, and Wood's apparent life-long fear of dark water (something that renders the chapters outlining the events in Catalina all the more compelling).Occasionally, the author does get caught up in the thematic elements of her books, using melodramatic narratives and making details more salacious than they might have been in life. However, as a reader, you become engrossed in Wood's life: disheartened when she makes poor choices and elated at her triumphs. It's an effortless read that offers a looking glass into how one woman was consumed by the Hollywood glamour machine of the 1950's. And, personally, I will never look at Robert Wagner in quite the same way.
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Summary: Leaves you wondering...
Review: Natasha started out as an interesting read about a young Natalie Wood and her obsessed mother. But, this goes on a little too long. We hear constantly about Maria, Mud or whatever name her mother goes by threats that Natalie will drown in "dark water" and that she doesn't have the body to carry children. Paragraph after paragraph is devoted to her "disformed wrist" hidden by a bracelet. The first 18 years of her life are minutely detailed - so much so that I skipped pages because it was more of the same. The adult Natalie is not given so much attention. Her first marriage to Richard Wagner is less than a chapter. Her marriage to Gregson is less than a chapter. The birth of her children that is foreshadowed to be a harrowing experience - is barely mentioned - yet we get more of that wrist saga. The death of Natalie is covered better than I expected - and the information at the end of the book offered by the skipper of the boat is very interesting. I hope he writes a book.
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Summary: For anyone who loved Natalie, this book is for you....
Review: I have read Lana Wood's book on her sister and found it to be written with a bit of jealousy. I have also read the many articles on Natalie however, "Natasha" is the most insightful. It really tells the sweet side of Natalie Wood the side most articles didn't fully portray. I was shocked about what caused her breakup with RJ and I have read that many people say it isn't true. Whether it is or not, isn't important but it has taken Natalie out of the typical "Hollywood cheat" light. How sad that she took the brunt of the gossip to protect the man she loved. I also found her mother to be a manipulative little witch. While Natalie might be gone, her movies that gave joy to all her fans, will live on.......
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Summary: Absorbing biography but a tad overdone
Review: I must admit that I found this biography immensely readable and interesting. Natalie Wood's mother makes Joan Crawford look like Snow White and the lengths this woman went to to ensure her daughter's success is sometimes chilling. The author apparently interviewed numerous associates of Natalie Wood from both her childhood and later life and (for the most part) you feel that you know Natalie from reliable sources and not from fan magazines, books and other questionable sources. The only area that the author seems sketchy on is Woods' mysterious death and perhaps no one will really ever know that full story. The negative points of the book is the length and the authors tendency to be repepitive. If you read about Wood's fear of "dark water" one time, you hear about it a thousand times and the same with her abnormal wrist, her mother's superstitions, etc. etc. Also, I felt the author spent way too much time on Woods' childhood, it seems to go on forever. However, these quips aside, I can recommend the book highly for anyone interested in Natalie Wood as well as a powerful portrait of a child star in Hollywood during the 40's.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Biography
Review: I loved this book. It is very well written and thoroughly enjoyable. I have always been a fan of Natalie Wood, and now I feel that I know the person Natalie much better. I was not surprised to find out that Natalie was popular and had many loyal friends and admirers. She always had great charisma.
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Summary: "Fascinating Subject Leaves Many Questions"
Review: Natalie Wood was one of my favorite actresses and I was shocked by her drowning death at such a young age under such strange circumstances. I was anxious to read this book and had mixed feeling about it once I was finished. The writer dealt excessively with the obsessive behavior of the Russian mother who acted like Natalie/Natasha was part of her own psyche. The woman was truly evil, as evidenced by a horrifying tale of her plucking the wings off a butterfly to get her child to cry on cue. As a reader, you need to patiently plough through a lot of overwrought writing to glean interesting facts like that. In addition to a brutal description of the rape itself, there were several references to the "Hollywood star" who attacked Natalie and is apparantly still alive since the writer "can't believe he can live with himself." I find it hard to believe that hotel records could not have been researched for a stronger clue to this man's identity. Was the writer paid off by the actor's children? If you are at all a Hollywood follower, you can pretty much figure out who this person is (at least I think I have anyway) and indeed his family name is very powerful. Another weakness is that the drowning sequence stories drag on for pages, are ultimately inconclusive, and focus excessively on Natalie's fear of drowning in dark water. We read about this fear throughout the book in excessively purplish prose. I found it amazing to read how much alcohol was drunk by the four people on board, however, over the days leading up to the tragedy. And the image of RJ leaning over the boat and mocking a drowning Natalie is truly chilling, though not totally convincing. Overall, a pretty good read -- chock full of details that, while meticulous, are repeated so often that you get tired of reading them. I wish there was more information about how her children fared after her death. She seemed to be a wonderful mother and I wonder how the daughters have reacted to all the rumors that continue to swirl around her death. The book definitely helped me to see more sides of Natalie and to understand why she always looked so serious in her movies; she did not have an easy life, despite all the furs and glamour. I wish she had received an Academy Award for "Spendor in the Grass." She certainly deserved it.
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Summary: Informative but depressing
Review: I just finished this book and was left with a feeling of depression over a lost, tragic life. The book raises many questions about the night of Natalie's death and leads one to wonder why her husband was not questioned more aggresively. It certainly seems that he knows more than he's saying. I agree with some of the other reviewers that much of this book was repetitive. However, if you are interested in Natalie Wood, it was worthwhile.
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Summary: Too much psycho-babble
Review: After reading this book I got the feeling the author is a frustrated pop-psychologist. Almost every page had her incessant psychological "observations" and conclusions. On and on she trolled about the wrist, the fear of water, the Natasha/Natalie dilemma, the age difference between Natalie and her director/lover, ad nauseum. Less repetition would have made for a more interesting book and would have cut out about 100 pages, at least. Where was the editing?
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Summary: She would have made a wonderful friend
Review: I'm surprized at the negative reviews this book has received because I thought it was not only well-written, but presented Natalie Wood as being so human. I finish so many biographies feeling disappointed in the subject, but Natalie was far lovelier and more complex a person than I realized. I never knew how conflicted she was between being a "star" and a serious actress nor did I have an inkling of how grotesque her childhood was. That she survived that monstrous mother, and evolved into such a kind, warm, decent person is a testament to her strength and character. I look forward to seeing her movies again with a new respect and admiration.
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Summary: A Sad, Poignant Life
Review: Reading this book is like recalling someone you knew in life; a funny and fun special someone, yet wistful, vulnerable and given to premonitions of foreboding doom. Another, lesser known actress, Gail Russell, seemed to have this aura. And I've known someone through the years who possessed these same qualities and who strongly resembles a combination of the two, but, who fortunately, is alive today and happily married. (She also fortunately had a compliant and loving mother.) It's not too difficult for a movie goer at times to project and transfer certain actor's or actress' qualities on someone they know, but Natalie could so easily evoke those feelings and emotions. Having discussed this with friends and acquaintances, they agree that her acting abilities were very personalized, drawing forth overwhelming feelings of wanting to comfort and protect her. Conversely, for the really frivolous, light side of my composite perfect female, toss in (not literally) the beautiful Barbara Lawrence, who amazingly overshadowed Jeanne Crain in 1947's "Margie", especially in the backporch rendition of "A Cup of Coffee, A Sandwich and You", done with the the prototypical football hero, Conrad Janis. A particularly sad aspect of this book is the tragic revelation concerning Robert Wagner's persona and how he must feel if the facts in this account are entirely accurate. One of the personal ironies involving reading this mesmerizing biography is that my illusory composite femme fatale had a "mad crush" on R.J...as did her younger sister, who even more ironically, strongly resembles Lana Woods (who, again, is easy to develop a "mad crush" on herself...hard to forget her debut in the immortal "The Searchers"). But, then again, they both might possibly have had a slightly less crush on me, especially during my basketball playing days. Wishful thinking. Geez, don't know if this meandering is going ot make the cut. So, Suzanne Finstad, this book has touched a lot of responsive chords, although the cringes are there when describing Natalie's "Rebel Without a Cause" growth period and obviously misguided liasons. However, to draw from Joe. E Brown's classic "Some Like It Hot" closing line..."Nobody's perfect". But Natalie most certainly epitomized near perfection.
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