"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library" - Jorge Luis Borges

Monday, November 14, 2016

EVERY FRENCHMAN HAS ONE - Olivia de Havilland

Back in print again for the first time in decades, the 1962 memoir by Gone With the Wind star/Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland - who turned 100 in 2016 - is a brief, lighthearted tale of how she fell in love with a Frenchman and came to relocate to Paris.  If you're looking for any recollections of her films, celebrity friends, or experiences making movies in Hollywood, you're going to be hugely disappointed; the book barely even touches on the movies she continued to make once living in France - otherwise the industry is barely even mentioned.  No, this book is more for pure de Havilland fans, or Francophiles who would enjoy reading about the various comparisons she makes between the U.S and France in terms of everything from men to fashion to raising kids, hiring servants, dealing with home remodeling crews ... even the way size and importance of a woman's bust are viewed between the two countries.  Never approaching anything controversial or political, the book reads very much like a Hollywood Movie Star having a sort of fireside chat with her fans, courtesy of an extra-long cover story in a favorite issue of Photoplay; nothing exciting or revealing or deep, the book has its charms but I was looking for something with a little more meat to it.  2.5/5 stars

Note: I received a free ARC of this title via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.