The Farmer's Daughter Remembered: The Biography of Actress Inger Stevens

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating fragments of a troubled star's story
Review: There's not a lot of information out there readily available on Inger Stevens' life, and from what Mr. Patterson writes, most of it is wrong anyway. According to his biography of the actress, Ms. Stevens herself gave out fictitious and occasionally contradictory accounts of her life to reporters and acquaintances, which must have made it hard to piece together a definitive account of what happened to her.

To that end, Patterson should be commended for his efforts to detail her story, and for his detective work into her mysterious death (which he states may have been a murder). This book's strength is its pooling of information on this often overlooked actress -- the compilation of personal letters, interviews with family and friends, reviews and articles from a variety of sources -- giving her fans and interested readers insights into her unique personality.

The book's weaknesses, however, are apparent in the writing and editing. The information is often presented in choppy, disjointed fashion, while the prose is at times awkward, repetitive and poorly punctuated.

These qualms aside, the facts of Inger Stevens' life not only speak for themselves, they shout how lonely and lost she often was. Even if she didn't take her own life, her long trail of badly chosen relationships only led one way. It's a sad story, and I appreciate the hard work Mr. Patterson invested to tell it.