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Summary: Farrow "Falls Away"
Review: "What Falls Away" was apparently any sense of innocence that Mia Farrow had when she broke up with Woody Allen. Farrow's autobiography has a sort of wispy appeal, with her stories about life with Frank Sinatra and Andre Previn, but it only comes to life in the last third of the book. Farrow came from a celebrity family and started acting early. It was the cause of her deteriorated brief marriage to legendary singer Frank Sinatra, and new homebody ways didn't save her second marriage to Andre Previn -- but she did adopt many special-needs or orphaned children, alongside her own biological ones. But her sprawling adopted family was imperiled when her longtime boyfriend Woody Allen was found to be having an affair with her adopted daughter. The first two-thirds of "What Falls Away" lacks any real punch. It's low-sugar cotton candy, with Farrow talking about the celebrity life and her time with her two husbands. And she talks about adopting children, of course -- although as the number goes up, it gets harder and harder to tell them apart. But Farrow's biography starts showing a pulse a third of the way. Her long-term affair with Woody Allen was a bit of a freakshow, and it's only when it comes to Allen that Farrow starts to show any passion of any kind -- good, bad, or just passionate. She tries to hold back her obvious -- and justifiable -- anger, but it seeps through the ink. Unfortunately, as "What Falls Away" starts to show signs of life, Farrow's own portrait of herself unravels. It comes across as alarming that she was merely worried by Allen's bizarre behavior toward Dylan, a young girl he sexually abused. And that after finding explicitly pornographic photographs of her adopted daughter, Farrow went back to work with Allen. Yet Farrow seems helpless to stop Allen from doing anything. She couldn't even throw him out of her apartment -- her son had to do it. Farrow's writing is wisp-thin and sort of vaguely new-agey, especially when she writes about her transcendental trips with the Beatles back in the sixties. It's not that good, but it's pleasant enough. Virtually everyone is painted in rosy hues, save Allen (who is painted a sort of slimy sludge color) and Soon-Yi (Farrow obviously doesn't know what her daughter is thinking). In fact, it's hard to tell what Farrow herself is thinking -- she only seems to skim the top of her feelings. Mia Farrow doesn't exactly bare her soul in "What Falls Away." What she does do is expose Woody Allen, and a life that mixes the disquieting and the impressive.
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Summary: ... A Rose By Any Other Name...
Review: I am a lover of memoirs, and this is the best one I've read in a long time. Mia's candor is praiseworthy, and I found this to be a very important book with meaningful themes. Mia is a tender woman with a tender heart, and I can't find it within myself to be overly critical of her or of her naivete with regard to relationships with men. I think she knows what her emotional abandon caused her, and caused her children. Still, she is an amazing woman with a generous heart. Others may be critical of her "obsession" with children, but I thank God for people like Mia who dare to love the "unloveable" children of the world --- children who have been tossed away without a care or a thought. The story of Mia's marriage to Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn, and her long-term relationship with Woody Allen comprises most of the book. Through these relationships, she comes to terms with her own vulnerability, neediness and deep desire for intimacy. I don't think she's very different from a lot of women; different, perhaps, in how she chooses to go about attaining meaning in relationships. And certainly she is more passive than many women would have been in certain circumstances. At points during the book, I found myself angry with her for not just up and walking out, calling the police, getting a restraining order --- SOMETHING!! Instead, the lines I read were something to the effect of, "he wouldn't leave. I kept asking him, but he wouldn't leave, so I just let it go." Even after she was suspicious of Woody's (possible sexual) behavior toward their adopted daughter, Dylan, she was actually OVERJOYED when Woody encouraged her to adopt another girl, seen only in the photos of a boy she was trying to adopt!! I couldn't believe it...I thought she'd really flipped at that point. But throughout the book, I am reminded just how human Ms. Farrow is, and I am reminded of the humanity in us all --- the stupidity we knowingly walk in because it temporarily satisfies something in us, the deep desire for intimacy and love we itch and crave and long for, the desire to hope for good, hope for absolute good in people. We have all fallen in similar ways, I'm sure, perhaps, though, with different consequenses. Unfortunately, Ms. Farrow's children had to pay the ultimate price for her lack of sound judgement. Unlike other memoirs I've read, she does, however, take responsibility for her wrong doing, and I appreciated that. She and her children have suffered greatly, have experienced a terrible loss, from which they may never fully recover. I do wonder about Soon-yi, though. If she was young and naive when Woody first persuaded her, why did she continue? Did she not appreciate the devastation and pain her relationship with Woody caused her mother and all of her brothers and sisters? Perhaps these questions and others may never be answered -- not for the reader, and possibly not for Ms. Farrow and her family. Still, the book is more than worth the time. An excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Sincere without being Scathing
Review: I read a whole lot. I like biographies especially, but I shied away from this one for a long time, not interested in the over-feted ex Mrs. Previn/ ex Mrs. Sinatra whose boyfriend seduced her own adult daughter and was suspected of molesting their own child. However, as a strong adoption proponent, a TV show on Mia and her many children finally convinced me to give this book a chance. I really enjoyed it. The talented Miss Farrow is an effective narrator, recounting her life without fanfare or hyperbole. She admits to her own weaknesses (you should read Eddie Fisher's autobiography for a non-example of THAT!), and she confesses that her movie-baby upbringing skewed her perspective of normalcy that most of us take for granted. She didn't even realize Frank Sinatra was a legend at the time of their marriage, for example. She bubbles over trials (polio as a youngster, the death of her father, her divorces) with the attitude that negativity deserves no chance to crush the present. However, she spends more time on Allen; her account rings with absolute sincerity as she describes the ongoing perversions of his behavior with their daughter Dylan (and readily confesses her own "wrongness" for not stopping the inappropriateness long before she actually did, earning my respect). She even included, in an appendix, the court decision refusing Allen custody of the three children they shared and the reasons why. Her anger does appear in defense of Dylan and especially upon discovery of Allen's affair with Soon-Yi, her daughter with Andre Previn. She describes without an iota of rancor or hatred scenes of him attempting to justify himself, but I could not help but want to smack him hard for the damage he foisted on innocent children. Yes, I think Mia should have been smarter in the first place about him. So does she. But he was wrong, evil. Usually, after I read one biography, I read others about the same person (or about his or her loved ones, if they're famous and have their own books out) to try to avoid a skewed perspective of the truth... but in this case, it'll be quite a while before I would care to touch a Woody Allen ANYTHING, especially a book or film that would put money in his selfish, narcissistic, self-serving pocket. Her adoption mania struck me as dysfunctional at first, but in context (Mia is, herself, one of seven children... and she always first consulted her present family before introducing a newcomer... many of whom were grown by the time new babies entered the scene), it's not as startling as I imagined. Again, she describes the evolution of her nuclear family without sensationalism, without a "glorify me because I'm so heroic" attitude, just with simple comment that children all deserve families to love them, even children that most "normal" families would find it difficult to love. She has the means, and she has the imperfect though always willing heart to back up her inclinations. I would definitely recommend this book to read, although you may want to scope it out in a bookstore or library before buying it. It's not light fare.
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Summary: Such a nice person!
Review: I really felt the pain Mia suffered with her lover her daughter and the deceit. This book is written straight from her heart.
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Summary: Loved this!
Review: I usually love to read a good mystery. I decided to try this one out and loved it! Mia is so honest about her life's ups and downs. I recommend this!
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Summary: ENCHANTING AND REAL
Review: I was ready for anything with this book. I love the idea of Mia Farrow's unconventional lifestyle and her eccentricity but that does not a great writer make. However, I was really happily surprised at her lovely writing style. She is a natural talent. Her writing voice is clear and elegant and does justice to her very interesting life. I, of course, was interested in the Woody Allen scandal, but that is only a small part of what this book has to offer. Wonderful read.
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Summary: Mia Farrow eloquently describes a painful and joyful life.
Review: In "What Falls Away," Mia Farrow describes a life that many would think charmed but that was often a true nightmare. In the book, Farrow chronicles many extremely painful and heart-wrenching experiences but writes so beautifully that the reader can't help but turn the page. As for Farrow's infamous case against Woody Allen, anyone who reads this book will know that Farrow is a true hero for adopting 14 children, and Woody Allen is a cowardly, sick man who deserves no respect. This book is incredible! I would recommend it to anyone and have recommended it to everyone.
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Summary: Touching and beautiful. Not soon forgotten.
Review: Mia Farrow's life has been full of challenges, children, and celebrities, yet she has come through it all as open, caring, and strong as she could possibly be. If you want to read her account of the whole Woody Allen / Soon-Yi / Dylan Farrow affair, read this book. If you have ever seen any of the movies she or either of her parents have been in, read this book. If you have children, read this book. If you find any joy in life, read this book to reaffirm that there are a few simply magnificent and good people in this world.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This was written from the heart, Mia's pain seeps through the ink. Loved reading her story.
Rating:
Summary: interesting
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.
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