A review by outsmartyourshelf
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll by Priscilla Presley

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I'm not an Elvis fan as such, my musical tastes are more for the 80s & 90s, & I always thought his films were a bit twee, apart from maybe Flaming Star & Kid Galahad. For me he was like JFK (in more ways than one), everyone talked about him being handsome, but I could never really see it. This is a difficult book to rate. There's no ignoring (nor should we) the fact that Priscilla was 14 when they met, & only 16 when they started living together - it was wrong, she was underage, & far too young for him. It gave me the ick every time he referred to her as "Little Girl", I mean, she basically was. Plus he gave her sleeping pills so she could keep up with his 'party late/sleep late' lifestyle & attend school! This is Priscilla's book & I'm rating & reviewing it on that.

She paints the picture of a relationship & eventual marriage to a man who had everything a person could dream of with fame & fortune, but who was, at heart, deeply unhappy. He seemed controlling & emotionally manipulative of his inner circle, yet the other side of him spoiled those around him with gifts & wanted everyone to be content. Priscilla admits that she spent too much of her young life consumed with being who Elvis wanted her to be rather than being herself. It was good to see her finally admit that things weren't working & they were both unhappy & have the strength to move on & live her own life.

I didn't give this the full 5 stars as I feel the author skipped over things quite quickly & spends a lot time excusing Elvis for some of the things he did. It was an interesting read but an uncomfortable one as you are aware of her young age whilst all this is going on. I have some other books about Elvis on my TBR so it will be interesting to compare those to this one, once I get around to reading them. 
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