Rating: 
Summary: Natalie Deserves Better
Review: Very disappointing. Lambert presents Natalie as a narcissistic, suicidal sex addict, drug addict, out of control alcoholic. How did she ever manage to make a movie? This disconnected, chaotic account of many less than interesting moments in Natalie's life lacks authenticity. There's too much wild guessing, not enough flow, no sense of the "real" Natalie and what made her tick. On page 337, at the very end of the book, long after reading about her career, her family and her death, Lambert suddenly jumps back to details about her roles in West Side Story, Gypsy and her other films yet again. What happened to the "creative editor" he mentions in his acknowledgements? To add to the general confusion, a costume designer named Donfeld is mentioned on almost every page in the book. This bio could, in fact, be retitled "The Donfeld Story," because it certainly isn't the Natalie Wood story! Save your money, this one is a disaster.
Rating: 
Summary: Serviceable court biography
Review: When Suzanne Finstad's biography of Natalie Wood came out a couple of years ago, RJ Wagner refrained from commenting on it or giving his assistance because (we were told) a more authoritative biography was already in the works. This is that more authoritative biography--an authorized biography, in fact, sanctioned by family and friends. What a disappointment. It is both bland and sketchy. Unlike Finstad, Lambert does not seem to have done any legwork in researching this, other than a couple of phone calls to Mart Crowley, Natasha Lofft, and a few other frequently quoted supporting players. The result is a book a plodding book short on revelation and telling detail. I feel gypped by this book. We were led to believe it would set the record straight about the breakup of Natalie and RJ's first marriage (the Finstad book says it was precipitated by RJ's homosexual sidetrips); that it would give the final word on Natalie's mysterious drowning, in which RJ was a suspect; and maybe it would shed some light on the suggestion in Finstad's book that Kirk Douglas, or somebody like him, raped Natalie when she was a teenager. So what news here? None at all. But be of good cheer, Gavin Lambert! You need never fear you'll be scratched off the Wagners' "A" list. Gavin, why did you bother? Being a social friend of Natalie and RJ's does not qualify one to write her biography. If anything, quite the opposite--it curtails one's honesty, since most of the principals are still alive. Better if you had made this a personal memoir--"Natalie as I Remember Her"--and avoided the trap of a full-scale bio.
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