Natalie Wood

A Life

By: Gavin Lambert

Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

From her starring roles as a skeptical child in the perennial classic Miracle on 34thStreet and a troubled adolescent in Rebel Without a Cause to mature roles in Splendor in the Grass and West Side Story, actress Natalie Wood transfixed the world with her hypnotic brown eyes. Yet behind the beautiful façade lurked a fragile, sparkling, generous, funny woman traumatized by her childhood and beset by personal demons. In this landmark biography, her close, personal friend Gavin Lambert sets out to tell her extraordinary story with the help of intimate interviews from her friends and colleagues, including Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, and her husband, Robert Wagner. What emerges is a luminous, assiduously researched portrait that sheds new light on the life and tragic death of the silver screen's most beguiling star.

©2006 AudioGO (P)2015 Blackstone Audiobooks

Story was choppy

Some of the facts and people were interesting but the book was put together using her diary, bites from movie clips, stories from people that gave interviews about her and previously published articles. Although quoted and credit given, the story jumps all over. It talks about her kids, relationships, movies and her life but not in any sequence that I could figure out. I have no idea how she died, but was told well before the end of the book. And the last Chapter seemed to be about one of her movies, but not her last movie, and just had really odd placement. I feel like this book could’ve been written in a less choppy and more sequential basis, to provide a better flow for the listener.

Best Natalie Wood biography

I learned the most from this biography over others. Well written, it was witty at times.

Sad Tale About a Beautiful Person

Very good detail. Good narration. She had so much going for her, it seems, then to be fighting pills, and dying the way she did. what a sad loss. Good book. Thanks

Emotional Rollercoaster

Natalie's life was an emotional rollercoaster. From her cold, self centered mother to the emptiness she was left with.

Great book. Horrible Narration.

I found the details of Ms. Wood’s life and the content of this story very interesting, but I couldn’t get through it because of the narration. It sounded as if it were a computer generated voice devoid of inflection and locked into a speech pattern and rhythm that made it impossible to follow. Perhaps the author and publisher will re-release it.

a mom story

What disappointed you about Natalie Wood?

Every few paragraphs we get a diatribe of how Natalie's mother was connected to Russian Aristocracy. The story line jumps back and forth so much and drops names that it is confusing and hard to follow if Natalie is 8 or 14 at the time.

What do you think your next listen will be?

back to fiction

How did the narrator detract from the book?

mans voice on a woman's story not good

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no, I didn't finish it

did not like

awful.
don't waste your credits on this one. did not hold my interest at all

Ugh. Could have been so good, but a total miss.

ZZZzzz. Desperately needs good developmental editing. The content is poorly organized, and (perhaps partly as a result) the narration is rushed and unfeeling. Not at all interestingly done -- couldn't get through much of it, sadly. Story has such amazing potential, but this book is just a miss all around.

Not engaging

I’ve always had an interest in Natalie Wood but this book was too long, with too much detail. I also couldn’t get past the annoying affected narrators voice.