More Than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wagner
Natasha Gregson Wagner
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
The "graceful, loving," (The New York Times Book Review), never-before-told story of Hollywood icon Natalie Wood's glamorous life, sudden death, and lasting legacy, written by her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner. Natasha Gregson Wagner's mother, Natalie Wood, was a child actress who became a legendary movie star, the dark-haired beauty of Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story. She and Natasha's stepfather, the actor Robert Wagner, were a Hollywood it-couple twice over, first in the 1950s, and then again when they remarried in the 70s. To Natasha, she was, above all, a doting, loving mom. But Natalie's sudden death by drowning off Catalina Island at the age of forty-three devastated her family, turned Robert Wagner into a person of interest, and transformed a vibrant wife, mother, and actress into a figure of tragedy. The weekend has long been shrouded in rumors and scandalous tabloid speculation, but until now there has never been an account of how the events and their aftermath were experienced by Natalie's beloved eldest daughter. Here, for the first time, is a"deeply intimate chronicle of life with her famous mother and how Wood's death devastated the family" (Los Angeles Times). Cutting through the shadow hanging over her mother's legacy, More Than Love is a "poignant" (The Washington Post) tale of a daughter coming to terms with her grief, as well as a "revealing new look at Natalie Wood" (Good Morning America).
Product Details
Price
$18.00
$16.74
Publisher
Scribner Book Company
Publish Date
May 04, 2021
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.3 X 0.8 inches | 0.55 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781982111199
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About the Author
Natasha Gregson Wagner has acted in such films as Another Day in Paradise, High Fidelity, Two Girls and a Guy, and David Lynch's Lost Highway, and in the television shows Ally McBeal, House MD, and Chicago Hope. In 2016, she coauthored a coffee table book titled Natalie Wood: Reflections of a Legendary Life. She is one of the producers of the HBO documentary of her mother's life: Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. Wagner lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Reviews
"A vivid portrait of Natalie Wood, the person.... A deeply intimate chronicle of life with her famous mother and how Wood's death devastated the family."
--LA Times "A poignant look at a complicated relationship...and a tantalizing foray into 'What if?'"
--The Washington Post "Wagner...begins her graceful, loving memoir of her mother, Natalie Wood, with an affecting account of waking to news that she had drowned...the best of a crop of new books that take us into the turbulent world of stardom.... Wagner's book effectively reclaims Wood from tawdry gossip and shallowness.
--The New York Times Book Review "Natasha is ready to share who her "brave and strong" mother truly was...in her memoir More Than Love."
--People Magazine "[A] revealing new look at Natalie Wood."
--Good Morning America "What her daughter remembers isn't the myth, but her mother. A beautiful woman devoted to giving her daughters the only thing she never had - a real childhood."
--New York Daily News "In this heartfelt memoir, she offers a look at her life -- as a child enraptured by her mother, and then as an actress, trying to forge her own way while making sense of her mother's."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinal "Reveals many small, sweet details of her mother's personal life...By sharing her memories, Natasha hopes to erase the perception that Natalie was a victim."
--Closer Weekly "Heart-wrenching.... Wagner's beautifully written and unashamedly emotional memoir is a love letter to Natalie Wood and an enduring gift to her fans."
--Publisher's Weekly "[An] eloquent debut... it is Wagner's sensitive, probing depiction of how she coped without Wood that makes for the most compelling reading in a book that celebrates both a brilliant actress and a bygone film era. An intimate and heartfelt memoir."
--Kirkus "[V]ivid and heartbreaking... fascinating... [a] personal account that fans of old Hollywood will savor."
--Booklist, starred "This beautifully written memoir will appeal to movie fans, but Wagner's long search for emotional stability also makes it a compelling tool for those crippled by grief."
--Shelf Awarenes
"In More Than Love, Natasha Gregson Wagner brings to life her extraordinarily talented and devoted movie-star mother, Natalie Wood, their magical life before Natalie's tragic drowning when Natasha was eleven, and Natasha's struggle to grow up after. The book is moving, powerful, and so honest. Natasha Gregson Wagner is a bright life force as was her mother."
--Delia Ephron, author of Siracusa "In this wrenching memoir, Natasha Gregson Wagner conjures in precise, dreamlike detail the idyllic, protected childhood that her mother, Natalie Wood, created for her--a menagerie of animals and friends, a garden always in bloom, laughter on the telephone, bubbles in the bath--and how that dream that morphed into a cold-sweat nightmare with Wood's sudden death. After Wood dies, eleven-year-old Natasha's world goes grey, like Oz in reverse. Writing from inside an experience long crystallized as Hollywood lore and sometimes as Hollywood scandal, Wagner deftly redirects us to the true mystery, that of the deep and enduring bond she shares with her namesake."
--Dana Goodyear, author of The Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard, Honey and Junk, and Anything That Moves "A mother's death is a loss that changes a daughter forever. In More Than Love, Natasha Gregson Wagner shows us how it's possible to carry memories forward with compassion and grace. Her book is a beautiful testimony to the enduring nature of a mother's love."
--Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters
--LA Times "A poignant look at a complicated relationship...and a tantalizing foray into 'What if?'"
--The Washington Post "Wagner...begins her graceful, loving memoir of her mother, Natalie Wood, with an affecting account of waking to news that she had drowned...the best of a crop of new books that take us into the turbulent world of stardom.... Wagner's book effectively reclaims Wood from tawdry gossip and shallowness.
--The New York Times Book Review "Natasha is ready to share who her "brave and strong" mother truly was...in her memoir More Than Love."
--People Magazine "[A] revealing new look at Natalie Wood."
--Good Morning America "What her daughter remembers isn't the myth, but her mother. A beautiful woman devoted to giving her daughters the only thing she never had - a real childhood."
--New York Daily News "In this heartfelt memoir, she offers a look at her life -- as a child enraptured by her mother, and then as an actress, trying to forge her own way while making sense of her mother's."
--Milwaukee Journal Sentinal "Reveals many small, sweet details of her mother's personal life...By sharing her memories, Natasha hopes to erase the perception that Natalie was a victim."
--Closer Weekly "Heart-wrenching.... Wagner's beautifully written and unashamedly emotional memoir is a love letter to Natalie Wood and an enduring gift to her fans."
--Publisher's Weekly "[An] eloquent debut... it is Wagner's sensitive, probing depiction of how she coped without Wood that makes for the most compelling reading in a book that celebrates both a brilliant actress and a bygone film era. An intimate and heartfelt memoir."
--Kirkus "[V]ivid and heartbreaking... fascinating... [a] personal account that fans of old Hollywood will savor."
--Booklist, starred "This beautifully written memoir will appeal to movie fans, but Wagner's long search for emotional stability also makes it a compelling tool for those crippled by grief."
--Shelf Awarenes
"In More Than Love, Natasha Gregson Wagner brings to life her extraordinarily talented and devoted movie-star mother, Natalie Wood, their magical life before Natalie's tragic drowning when Natasha was eleven, and Natasha's struggle to grow up after. The book is moving, powerful, and so honest. Natasha Gregson Wagner is a bright life force as was her mother."
--Delia Ephron, author of Siracusa "In this wrenching memoir, Natasha Gregson Wagner conjures in precise, dreamlike detail the idyllic, protected childhood that her mother, Natalie Wood, created for her--a menagerie of animals and friends, a garden always in bloom, laughter on the telephone, bubbles in the bath--and how that dream that morphed into a cold-sweat nightmare with Wood's sudden death. After Wood dies, eleven-year-old Natasha's world goes grey, like Oz in reverse. Writing from inside an experience long crystallized as Hollywood lore and sometimes as Hollywood scandal, Wagner deftly redirects us to the true mystery, that of the deep and enduring bond she shares with her namesake."
--Dana Goodyear, author of The Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard, Honey and Junk, and Anything That Moves "A mother's death is a loss that changes a daughter forever. In More Than Love, Natasha Gregson Wagner shows us how it's possible to carry memories forward with compassion and grace. Her book is a beautiful testimony to the enduring nature of a mother's love."
--Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters
