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168 reviews for:
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
Sam Kashner
3.76 AVERAGE
168 reviews for:
Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century
Sam Kashner
3.76 AVERAGE
“So I have decided that for a second or two, the precious potential of you in the next room is the only thing in the world worth living for.”
I have been having a Liz Taylor-Richard Burton movie marathon since I finsihed "Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century." I've been in awe of the Burtons since discovering Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. My friend David and I used to watch it over and over in college. I was shocked to learn that Liz was younger than I was when she made that movie - she just looked older thanks to makeup and wigs. I felt sorry for them having to live their lives constantly in the spotlight. Their affair seems to have triggered the paparazzi mania we know so well today. And I am fascinated by their crazy, world traveling, boozing lifestyle as well as the details from Richard's diaries and letters, and the facts thrown in like Liz's daughter couldn't read at 7 because her mother spent too much time in bars! I listened to the audiobook - and I hated the narrator. He did accents for every British or Aussie person mentioned and then did a horrible impression of Liz and other women. He was also one of those people who had to pronounce every foreign word or city name with an accent - I hate that!!! But otherwise, it was a fantastic, whirlwind story.
This is book is so readable and delicious and will make you SO MAD that "Cleopatra" is the only Burton-Taylor movie you can stream on netflix.
It's a long litany of stories about how the two drank, had sex, blamed everyone but themselves, indulged in every vice they could, continued to make movies, and then whined about all the publicity. I'm all for a good juicy gossip book, but it isn't well written gossip. Seems to repeat itself a lot. Needs another round of editing and proofreading. No wonder it's so long, with all the repetition and overly long descriptions of drinking! I gave up after a while, couldn't stand yet another story about self-destruction being blamed on everyone but themselves.
I really enjoyed this even thought it was devastating. Only reason it is a 4 star review is because of the language used to describe Elizabeth's body sometimes made me wince.
This is a fascinating portrait not just of two incredibly talented individuals but also a love story that always risked lurching into the ridiculous. It has a lot to say about the birth of celebrity and its possible transformation.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton always make for fascinating reading. This book is fairly explicit, so reader beware.
One of my guilty pleasures is trashy movie-star biographies, and what could be better than this story?
I finally finished this book after putting it down twice because I never expected to be bored by the furious love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Once you make it through to the point of their first marriage the book loops over and over. New movie. New gaudy jewel. New place to live. New fights. New movie. She's always the most beautiful and intelligent woman to ever walk the earth. He's always wracked with guilt for abandoning family/stage/roots. They were both alcoholics and pill poppers. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.
The most interesting part for me was not their crazy opulent lifestyle, but how much Hollywood changed from their hey-day to the end of their careers.
Once you make it through to the point of their first marriage the book loops over and over. New movie. New gaudy jewel. New place to live. New fights. New movie. She's always the most beautiful and intelligent woman to ever walk the earth. He's always wracked with guilt for abandoning family/stage/roots. They were both alcoholics and pill poppers. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.
The most interesting part for me was not their crazy opulent lifestyle, but how much Hollywood changed from their hey-day to the end of their careers.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were such fascinating people with such an incredible love story. This biography really explores their lives and careers, but mainly their epic relationship and love for each other. I had such a good time reading it and learning all about their extravagant lives and their impact on the world. This book also has so many quotes and excerpts from personal journal entries and letters sent to each other that made the whole thing feel so intimate. I really felt like I got a personal look into their lives and it was so interesting, as well as kind of heartbreaking. I would absolutely recommend this biography to anyone who has an interest in film, but also to anyone who just wants to read about a truely epic love story.