Kathleen C. (Woodchuck) reviewed on + 83 more book reviews
From the ffp I'm the daughter of a father who's been married five times. Mother killed herself. My sister killed herself. My brother has been in a mental institution. I'm twenty-three and divorced with two kids. Her mother was Margaret Sullavan, the actress with th throaty voice that broke in the high reggisters nd the smile that could break your ehart. Broadway and movie audiences loved her. So did Henry Fonda, William Wyler, Jed Harris, Leland Hayward. but she wanted most of all to be a perfect mother--and she tried too hard.Her father was Leland Hayward, the Toscanini of the telephone who made million-dollar deals for Garbo, Hemingway, Judy garland, Lillian Hellman and who taught Fred Astaire how to dress. Katharine Hepburn called him "the most wonderful man in the world." But he neer quite heard what his children said. Haywire is a Hollywood childhood memoir, a glowing tapestry spun with equal parts of gold and pain. As a book it is an absolute beauty--a Hollywood beauty, to be precise--with all the charm that term implies, the deceptive simplicity, the complex hidden machinery and, above all, the terrible cost." -- Lois Gould, The New York Times Book Review 1977
