Rating: 
Summary: There are two stories here - one on the surface, one beneath
Review: Unlike her fellow hatchet-wielder-cum-memoirist Joyce Maynard, Ms. Farrow has led a genuinely interesting life. (As a celebrity, at any rate; her acting career has been undistinguished at best. And to judge by the absence of any consideration of the craft in these pages, it seems clear that she only drifted into acting for lack of qualifications to do anything else.) And the (ghost)writing here is of decent quality, though its occasional detours into New Age lyricism have a high "oh please" quotient.But let's be honest: the only question a potential buyer will have is, "How much dirt does she dish on Woody?" Well, she falls short of Maynard's impressive benchmark but not for lack of trying. Her portrait of Allen as a cold, manipulative, predatory, all but slavering child molester is devastating. If you believe only half of it (which is my percentage, give or take), you will never look at him again without a sense of moral nausea. Yet Farrow never converts me to her sense of outrage. Her account is so fanatically accusatory (quite unavoidably given her convictions, I suppose) that it creates an inadvertent current of sympathy for the Peter Lorre-ish figure that she's stalking through the sewers. And then, not to put too fine a point on it, she's not a very appealing character herself - silver-plattered (she was the Gwyneth of her day), mousy, not very bright. By her own admission, not only did she stay with Allen after her suspicions surfaced because she was eager to keep appearing in his films (at least she has the decency to beg her children's forgiveness for this), she actually went back to complete several days of reshoots on "Husbands and Wives" *after* she discovered the pornographic photographs that proved he was having sex with her daughter. (Just think about that for a minute.) There's also her creepy compulsive adoption of "unplaceable" children - pursued even in the midst of her family meltdown! This narcissistic exploitation of the young to satisfy her unhealthy emotional needs has a lot more in common with Allen's repugnant behavior than she seems to realize.
Rating: 
Summary: LOVED THE BOOK, HATED THE MAIN CHARACTERS!
Review: WARNING: A bit of a spoiler. This book is a wonderful read. The writing is witty. Mia is articulate (if there are no ghost writers), and funny. Her experiences are of a extraordinary world, experienced by a very simple person giving it an almost 'Alice in Wonderland' feel. I really enjoyed reading it until I grew increasingly mad and then finally disgusted losing all respect for Mia. Yes, Mia. See, just from what I knew, I never had much respect for Woody so that did not change. Actually no, I do find him even more repulsive now, but I just cannot believe some of the decisions taken by Mia. There were choices, and in my opinion, she made many WRONG ones that were almost unforgivable because they impacted young children more than her own life and well being. OVERTLY obvious warning signs were flaring and she just wished them away, inappropriate acts were occuring, again she figured the shrinks were going to make it all right soon, just hang in there. I still rate it a 4 out of 5 for its cleverness, ability not to get boring, and for making me laugh and want to slap someone just pages apart. That makes for a good read.
Rating:
Summary: LOVED THE BOOK, HATED THE MAIN CHARACTERS!
Review: WARNING: A bit of a spoiler. This book is a wonderful read. The writing is witty. Mia is articulate (if there are no ghost writers), and funny. Her experiences are of a extraordinary world, experienced by a very simple person giving it an almost 'Alice in Wonderland' feel. I really enjoyed reading it until I grew increasingly mad and then finally disgusted losing all respect for Mia. Yes, Mia. See, just from what I knew, I never had much respect for Woody so that did not change. Actually no, I do find him even more repulsive now, but I just cannot believe some of the decisions taken by Mia. There were choices, and in my opinion, she made many WRONG ones that were almost unforgivable because they impacted young children more than her own life and well being. OVERTLY obvious warning signs were flaring and she just wished them away, inappropriate acts were occuring, again she figured the shrinks were going to make it all right soon, just hang in there. I still rate it a 4 out of 5 for its cleverness, ability not to get boring, and for making me laugh and want to slap someone just pages apart. That makes for a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: mia yes, woody no
Review: what i got out of this book (and the included court decision, which lent great credibility to ms. farrow's narrative, is that mr. allen is a very sick man who has no business being around young children. it certainly made a mockery of that scene of his in Manhattan with michael murphy and the skeleton where he talks about his personal integrity, modeling himself after God, and being well thought of by future generations. ms. farrow deserves a lot of credit for believing the children and standing by them. (a little girl who locks herself in the bathroom or screams for the rest of the family to hide her when she sees her father coming is not fantasizing).
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