A Story Lately Told

August 19, 2013
Actress Huston achieves some moments of ringing clarity in this memoir of her youth, especially as regards her famous director father, John Huston, whom she was both terrified and in awe of (people “considered him a lion, a leader, the pirate they wished they had the audacity to be”). The daughter of his fourth wife, the dancer Ricki Soma (who was much younger than him), Anjelica Huston and her older brother, Tony, were raised in a remote 110-acre estate in West Country, Ireland, called St. Clerans, where being homeschooled; being visited by famous, quirky people; riding horses amid wildly romantic scenery; and playing dress-up filled her youth. Her father was frequently absent on far-flung shoots, and her exotic mother was “out of her element.” With her parents’ separation, Anjelica moved between Ireland and London, where her mother lived and where Anjelica went to school in the 1960s. She gradually embraced an acting career, appearing in her father’s A Walk with Love and Death, though without confidence. After the death of her mother in 1969, Huston slipped into a more comfortable role of modeling and serving as the muse for the troubled, brilliant (and much older) fashion photographer Bob Richardson over four tortured years. Huston ends her brave account by describing her complex relationship with her father.

November 1, 2013

This nostalgic opus chronicles actress/model Huston's life (and burgeoning career) from childhood to young adulthood. In highly descriptive detail, Huston (b. 1951) tells the story of her parents, director John Huston and former dancer Enrica Soma, and their cultured, yet curiously distant marriage. Filled with correspondence from her parents and family friends, many of them quite famous, this memoir paints a portrait of artificial opulence tempered by tragedy and the financial and interpersonal struggles of Huston and her family. Her storytelling skills, honed at an early age, are evident throughout, though readers may feel that there is much more to the Huston family that remains untold. Perhaps those stories will surface in part two, covering Huston's later career and life, which is scheduled to publish in 2014. VERDICT Recommended for fans of the Hustons (John; his father, Walter; Anjelica), as well as those who enjoy Vanity Fair-type showbiz profiles.--Tamela Chambers, Chicago Pub. Schs.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.