Natalie Wood: A Biography in Photographs - Christopher Nickens - Paperback - 1st ed

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Although fans might remember Natalie Wood as beautiful, talented and tragic, the film star emerges in this adulatory, superficial biography as merely boring. Nickens (who has also assembled ``biographies in photographs'' of Bette Davis and Elizabeth Taylor) presents an entire cast of characters that is decidedly flat. One doesn't expect an in-depth psychological study from a photo album, but the lack of insight here into the actress's relationships with her pushy stage mother, Maria, her sister Lana, and Robert Wagner, the husband she divorced and remarried, is conspicuous. The text is little more than captions accompanying a portfolio of Wood's career from her first bit part at the age of five in 1943 through Brainstorm, which was interrupted by her death in 1981. This sugar-coated trip down memory lane will make readers long for some good, titillating trash. (May 2)

Library Journal

For both film buffs and Wood fans, this is essential. Over 200 photos in four sections provide a springboard for a chronological look at the life and career of an actress who successfully made the transition from child star to adult star. Aside from the introduction, there is no formal narrativejust long captions filled with facts, stories, and trivia. The resulting portrait is overwhelmingly of a private, very professional (though professionally untrained) actress, which seems consistent with Wood's preferred image. Nickens cites Natalie Wood collections, some contemporaries, and her sister Lana's book Natalie ( LJ 4/15/84), which offers a more personal, troubled view of Natalie and herself plus different photos; both books contribute to our understanding. Rebecca Sturm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights