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bargainsleuth's review against another edition
3.0
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What was good about Furious Love? so many people in the story, including Elizabeth Taylor, were interviewed for this book or at least gave their blessing. Richard's widow also allowed the author access to his personal diaries and writings. The bad: the book was repetitive at times. I mean, how many times can Elizabeth's figure be described as "voluptuous" and Richard's face as "pock marked" from cystic acne? Furious Love could have used some serious editing.
Most of the book was spent on the build up of the relationship. Then, just as things were coasting along with happiness and sunshine and lots of love, the breakup happens with little explanation. It just came out of nowhere, which is probably not how it happened in real life.
Furious Love is worth a read if you like Old Hollywood stories, because Burton and Taylor were the last of that dying breed, but remember that this is a Hollywood biography, not great literature.
What was good about Furious Love? so many people in the story, including Elizabeth Taylor, were interviewed for this book or at least gave their blessing. Richard's widow also allowed the author access to his personal diaries and writings. The bad: the book was repetitive at times. I mean, how many times can Elizabeth's figure be described as "voluptuous" and Richard's face as "pock marked" from cystic acne? Furious Love could have used some serious editing.
Most of the book was spent on the build up of the relationship. Then, just as things were coasting along with happiness and sunshine and lots of love, the breakup happens with little explanation. It just came out of nowhere, which is probably not how it happened in real life.
Furious Love is worth a read if you like Old Hollywood stories, because Burton and Taylor were the last of that dying breed, but remember that this is a Hollywood biography, not great literature.
priceliketag's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This was a 4.5 but the epilogue got me so I’m bumping it up. Incredible book of a disastrous love.
yasy_yasy16's review against another edition
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0
Really interesting look at two people I knew very little about. Reading this made me more interested in seeing their old films.
pbraue13's review against another edition
4.0
Wow, what a couple! Before Angelina and Brad, the world had Richard and Elizabeth (or as the press called them, "Liz & Dick", a nickname that they deplored) and honestly, one could say that they are way more famous than Brad and Angelina ever could be. But they were possibly also just as toxic and dysfunctional. But did they love each other? Totally. Their love was like an explosive tidal wave that swept them both away. Their's was a relationship of indulgence and too-muchness. Their excess was something that bled into their addictions and I think they could have been considered to be addicted to each other. But in the end they helped one another, they changed one another for the better, and had they inhabited another age possibly could have survived all the things they endured. In the end, all I remembered reading was that these two loved one another, but it was a love that burned too hot to last.
4.5/5 stars
4.5/5 stars
hannchilada's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
The writing was very nicely done, but really lacked concision and therefore forward momentum. Bias to be expected
allisgaze's review against another edition
4.0
Really well-written biography of Elizabeth and Richard's relationship, just every page high drama of their affairs and marriages. The excess and public spectable is like nothing that ever was or will be - with the money and fame and sex and fighting. Probably horrific for everyone involved but entertaining now.
doritobabe's review against another edition
4.0
I bought this book when it first came out in 2010. I remember loving the cover, loving the idea of reading about a torrid romance. That is what swept me in and kept me reading.
While this book is a heavily biased (likely romanticized) biography, it was interesting to learn a perspective about the relationship. I especially enjoyed reading the excerpts of letters from RB to ETB.
Nice light(ish) tabloid read that gave a lot of perspective of the time that RB and ETB were stars in Hollywood.
While this book is a heavily biased (likely romanticized) biography, it was interesting to learn a perspective about the relationship. I especially enjoyed reading the excerpts of letters from RB to ETB.
Nice light(ish) tabloid read that gave a lot of perspective of the time that RB and ETB were stars in Hollywood.