Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations Paperback – July 8, 2014

I couldn’t put it down! It is intriguing, insightful and very informative. The way Peter wrote this book is very intimate. You feel as though you are having a late night drinking bender with Ava in the most sophisticated way possible. I loved her energy, insight, vulnerability and honesty. She was the most beautiful woman of her time yet her insecurities jump off the page constantly as she questions Peter of her own words. I read through this book within 2 days. If you want to have a great and telling conversation with a movie star buy this book!

I almost passed this one up, but succumbed to the temptation of reading intimate details about the lives of the Hollywood elite in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Gardner’s story of being discovered by accident and plucked from her impoverished southern, rural home as a naive, very young woman, ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous studio executives and big-name actors was one of the few sympathetic aspects of her story. She became one of the legendary queens of Hollywood, paying a gigantic price in damage to her psyche that she self-treated with massive amounts of alcohol and tobacco, damaging her health, becoming reclusive and broke, and contributing to her early death.This book is an aborted attempt at writing her biography. She hired the author to ghost write her autobiography because she needed money. But her ambivalence about the project came through in every 3 AM drunken telephone call she frequently made to the writer as she was forced to look at her life and experience shame, regret, and sorrow about so many of her choices. He had to coax and manipulate her to get her to talk truthfully about her life, and to move forward on the project, ultimately failing. The book instead is a posthumous annotated diary of their conversations up to the point she fired him. The author is not blameless for the biography being aborted. While he was abused by Ms. Gardner’s excessive demands, and frequent late night calls, he had a hidden agenda and was not upfront with Ms. Gardner about his history of having a relationship with a key person in her life. The book was published after both subject and author had died.Still a fascinating look at one actress’s life and her perspective on old Hollywood. It was worth a read.

I found this book to be an engaging and fascinating look at the "real woman" with all of her salty language and insecurities/fears/regrets. I felt a little ambivalent reading it because I don't think she wanted everything in the "first draft" to be included in the final editing. But since she's left incarnation, it no longer matters. The book has an appealing structure of transitioning from, on the one hand, Evan's arguments with her about what she wanted to leave in /edit out and what he did, and, on the other, his later written synopses of the various sections of her life. The thing to which I object and which made reading it rather a trial, is the grammar. Evans makes some errors about which any one calling himself a writer should know better.For ex: "Ava couldn't remember who she met that night...". SHOULD BE "WHOM" , OBJECTIVE CASE.For ex: "W.C. had had his share of vino and was feeling no pain, I was downing ouzo." THERE SHOULD BE A SEMI-COLON AFTER "pain" SINCE THIS CONCERNS TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES, AND NOT A SENTENCE AND A MODIFYING PHRASE OR SUCH.For ex: "Like he was athletic in the sack, and I was pretty verbal, and we were both very, very loud!" THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE SENTENCE.For ex: " She continued to talk in a reminiscent tone maybe for another twenty minutes, almost as if I wasn't there". HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS REQUIRE THE SUBJUNCTIVE: IT SHOULD READ: "....ALMOST AS IF I WEREN'T THERE".For ex: "As a lover, I still only had Mickey to judge him by, of course, but let's say Howard Hughes was a pleasant surprise." MISPLACED MODIFIER. AS WRITTEN, "as a lover" REFERS TO AVA HERSELF ("I"), BUT IS SUPPOSED TO REFER TO Mickey. CORRECTLY WRITTEN: "I still only had Mickey, as a lover, by which to judge him".Simple errors like the above are embarrassing for any one who calls himself a writer...since they would be recognized by any grammar school student (long before college). Such writing is bad because it perpetuates ignorance of the correct and therefore clear use of our language and because it doesn't create lucid, elegant prose for the reader. It instead creates obfuscation and ambiguity.Aside from the technical mistakes, the information is fascinating and will be irresistible to Ava Gardner or Classic Hollywood enthusiasts.

Muito bem escrito, verdadeiro e me senti como se Ava estivesse sentada, fumando um cigarro, tomando um drink e me contando sobre sua vida pessoal.

Great Book!

Una entretenida colección de anécdotas de la época dorada de Hollywood. No son unas memorias al uso. Ava Gardner sin filtros. Super entretenido el libro.

I enjoyed the stories, when they arrived…. But that I mean the author went on wayyyy too long and repetitively about Avas comments …. All protests and cursing about not doing the book. I understand why they are there but there’s no need for so much of it. Due to this I skipped a number of pages when the back and forth between them occurred…”I will do the book, I won’t do it, honey, baby, fahcrissake etc etc etc etc”The stories when properly mentioned were excellent and a nice little addition to all the other books out there. So worth the kindle price.I love the lady and her life and great to revisit it all again.

En 1988 Ava Gardner, sollicitée pour écrire ses mémoires, demanda au journaliste Peter Evans d'en être le ghostwriter; Recluse dans son luxueux appartement du quartier londonien de Knightsbridge, la mythique interprète de Pandora, affaiblie par une attaque, lui accorda de nombreuses interviews sans compter les multiples coups de fils nocturnes qu'elle lui passa lorsque l'alcool et la solitude la taraudaient. L'association, houleuse, se termina mal puisque finalement Ava lâcha Evans et ce furent des mémoires expurgées de toutes aspérités qui parurent peu après sa mort. L'intérêt de ce livre est de nous faire entendre la vraie voix d'Ava avec bien évidemment son lot de jurons (qu'elle ne souhaitait pas voir figurer dans le texte définitif) mais aussi ses traits d'humour à preuve cette appréciation de son premier mari :" Mickey Rooney, my shortest husband and my biggest mistake." Le livre vaut tout autant pour le point de vue du biographe forcé de composer, de louvoyer, de transiger, de s'abaisser pour tirer les vers du nez de l'étoile en quête de cash ("I either write the book or sell the jewels") mais peu incline à vraiment se confier. Le lecteur ne peut que s'esclaffer aux efforts d' Evans pour obtenir des informations sur la taille des attributs génitaux de Frank Sinatra tout en étant ému par l'évocation nostalgique de cette Norma Desmond à la santé chancelante qui avait, un jour, été sacrée par les services publicitaires de la MGM "plus bel animal du monde". D'une longueur de 293 pages, le livre, écrit dans un anglais aisément accessible, est accompagné d'une quinzaine de photos noir et blanc.