Peter Evans and Ava Gardner: Unveiling the Hidden Discussions

VSchulz: 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.

Australia on Jan 01, 2022

marian: 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.

Spain on Mar 06, 2020

Paul: Though more like a very long article I find this book captures Ava Gardner. Her wit and down to earth personality. It also captures end of life struggles
And how one can resign, accept and even laugh at the foibles of aging. It also is strange how many people in the former mid-century eras smoked one to three packs of cigarettes per day. Drank alcohol like it was water as well. This does not bode well as one ages. A lesson there. Over all one gets a glimpse of the Golden age of Hollywood night club life. Must have been fun. Though at the end od the day greed and shallowness reigns in this environment and though not addressed is probably why Gardner moved overseas later in life.

Canada on Mar 16, 2019

Rory: 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...

France on Dec 29, 2015

D_shrink: I found the book thoroughly enjoyable, with the only fault being that the author didn't get to complete it, as the actress stopped cooperating, but I will leave that for the end. Ava Lavinia Gardner was born on Christmas Eve of 1922 in Smithfield, NC and ended being buried there 67 years later in Sunset Memorial Park next to her brothers, her father, Jonas, 1878-1938, and her mother, Mary Elizabeth, "Mollie", 1883-1943. Her actual date of death was January 25,1990. She swore voraciously and smoked 3 packs a day for many years suffering from emphysema, pneumonia, and had several strokes. But her adult life was dominated by her looks and extreme fondness for unadulterated sex.

Ava claims she had a happy childhood, the youngest child born into a working class farm family. She claims to have been a tomboy and loved her "Daddy" best of all, he always just called her "daughter" which she loved, as it made her feel as though she belonged to someone. In Ava's own words, "You can sum up my life in a sentence, honey: she made movies, she made out, and she made a f****** mess of her life." [p2] "Her affairs had brought her final husband, Frank Sinatra, to the brink of suicide, taken...

United States on Jul 21, 2013

VerbRiver: This is a gathering of fragments for a book that was never written. Ava Gardner worked on it for a while, lost interest, then died.

More than two decades passed before her collaborator, Peter Evans, finally assembled his notes on interviews, phone conversations, recorded talks and meetings, thus preserving a few strobe light flashes of Ava Gardner. The result is part biography and part book about writing a book. It is a winning hybrid. Ms. Gardner could be a steely challenge. Mr. Evans had to be a persistent yet diplomatic extractor of stories. It became something of a take-and-take contest, fascinating even apart from Ms. Gardner's vignettes.

By the time the Gardner/Evans work was in progress, Ms. Gardner was already on the way to frail. She had had a damaging stroke, had once been a heavy smoker and an accomplished drinker. The rent on her body had been raised and the landlord was knocking. Consequently, Ms. Gardner comes through in these partly sewn notes as a bit of a dowager, once famous, once wealthy, and grace-of-God gorgeous. All of that by this time had fallen away.

She had a fairy tale start, rising from Tar Heel hayseed at 18 to spouse of...

United States on Jul 21, 2013

Belfast David: A movie star who, by her own admission hated making movies, Ava Gardner was a unique and original screen beauty who's fondness for booze, men and good times are legendary. This book is her story as told by her to Peter Evans, who she asked to ghost write her autobiography in the late 1980's.
Her volatile temper, extreme language and life long affair with alcohol and tobacco are well documented, as is her generosity, quick wit, deep unhappiness and short fuse when it came to getting her own way.
This book is a gem among other Ava biographies, in that on every page you get to 'hear' the star's own voice. Peter Evans has captured what he spent so long trying to attain, Ava's independent and complex personality.
I laughed out loud several times while reading this book, and by the end felt a profound sadness for a lady who's life (by the end of it) had taken her on a journey from the pinnacles of stardom, to a sad and somewhat lonely end.
A truly fantastic and fascinating book.

United Kingdom on Jul 08, 2013