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peachy_queen 's review for:
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll
by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, Sandra Harmon
Hoo boy.
I’ve been in a non-fiction mood since picking up Britney’s new book, so with the release of Priscilla, [b: Elvis and Me|63376550|Elvis and Me The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll|Priscilla Beaulieu Presley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1685351804l/63376550._SY75_.jpg|228487] felt like the obvious next move.
I will say, I went into this book with a lot of antagonism for Elvis. I like his music, casually, but I’ve seen a few documentaries on him in recent years that made me really dislike him as a person. Let me tell you, this book didn’t change that opinion whatsoever.
I didn’t realize until I had finished that this is quite an old book, originally published less than ten years after Elvis’ death, and now that I know that, it definitely makes me look at the book in a very certain way.
Elvis and Me simultaneously felt like a bit like a fly-over look at Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis. I definitely learned a lot about their relationship that I didn’t know, but I feel like Priscilla fell short on really examining a lot of the situations she was put into or the things she experienced during the time that she knew Elvis. Mostly, what we’re told is anecdotes showcasing Elvis to be a manipulative and emotionally immature person with the capacity for kindness and charm, his shortcomings mostly written off as character quirks. There are various points where Priscilla acknowledges how Elvis’ behavior and treatment of her is wrong and abusive, but only just so, and with qualifiers. It’s sad to read about because Priscilla really seemed to have done a lot for Elvis in the way of being a supportive partner, but she doesn’t give herself that same credit. Finding out this book was written decades ago, however, really just tells me Priscilla hadn’t quite done the reflecting she needed to yet, and definitely didn’t have the benefit of hindsight like she might have if she were to write this book in a post-#MeToo world.
I saw a lot of reviews saying they didn’t like the narration of the audiobook—which is the way I read this book—but I have to disagree, I honestly really enjoyed Priscilla’s narration! To me, it helped her voice in the writing shine through way more than it probably would have had I read a physical copy of the book, and I loved hearing her giggles here and there in places. I will say, sometimes the giggling was weird to hear solely because it would happen after stories that weren’t really funny and felt more serious in nature, and it kind of added to the idea that maybe Priscilla didn’t fully understand the gravity of some of the things that she experienced.
Priscilla said at the end of the book that she set out to write this book to showcase “love, wonderful moments, ones filled with grief and disappointments, a man’s triumphs and defeats, much of it, with a child-woman at his side feeling and experiencing his pain and joys as if they were one.” This is in contrast to the way Priscilla felt other stories about Elvis had been written where they focused on his “weaknesses, violent temper tantrums, eccentricities, perversions, and drug abuse”. In this way, Priscilla’s intent was super clear with the way she wrote this book, so, yes, it’s a very rose-tinted look at Elvis as well as Priscilla’s relationship with him. Despite this, I should say that, as a rule of thumb for myself, I don’t really rate autobiographies/biographies less than 5 stars unless the writing is, like, glaringly bad from a technical standpoint, so while the lack of ability on Priscilla’s part to really reflect and understand her relationship with Elvis and see the abuse and grooming she endured, that’s by no means something I’m going to give a bad rating for.
I’ve been in a non-fiction mood since picking up Britney’s new book, so with the release of Priscilla, [b: Elvis and Me|63376550|Elvis and Me The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll|Priscilla Beaulieu Presley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1685351804l/63376550._SY75_.jpg|228487] felt like the obvious next move.
I will say, I went into this book with a lot of antagonism for Elvis. I like his music, casually, but I’ve seen a few documentaries on him in recent years that made me really dislike him as a person. Let me tell you, this book didn’t change that opinion whatsoever.
I didn’t realize until I had finished that this is quite an old book, originally published less than ten years after Elvis’ death, and now that I know that, it definitely makes me look at the book in a very certain way.
Elvis and Me simultaneously felt like a bit like a fly-over look at Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis. I definitely learned a lot about their relationship that I didn’t know, but I feel like Priscilla fell short on really examining a lot of the situations she was put into or the things she experienced during the time that she knew Elvis. Mostly, what we’re told is anecdotes showcasing Elvis to be a manipulative and emotionally immature person with the capacity for kindness and charm, his shortcomings mostly written off as character quirks. There are various points where Priscilla acknowledges how Elvis’ behavior and treatment of her is wrong and abusive, but only just so, and with qualifiers. It’s sad to read about because Priscilla really seemed to have done a lot for Elvis in the way of being a supportive partner, but she doesn’t give herself that same credit. Finding out this book was written decades ago, however, really just tells me Priscilla hadn’t quite done the reflecting she needed to yet, and definitely didn’t have the benefit of hindsight like she might have if she were to write this book in a post-#MeToo world.
I saw a lot of reviews saying they didn’t like the narration of the audiobook—which is the way I read this book—but I have to disagree, I honestly really enjoyed Priscilla’s narration! To me, it helped her voice in the writing shine through way more than it probably would have had I read a physical copy of the book, and I loved hearing her giggles here and there in places. I will say, sometimes the giggling was weird to hear solely because it would happen after stories that weren’t really funny and felt more serious in nature, and it kind of added to the idea that maybe Priscilla didn’t fully understand the gravity of some of the things that she experienced.
Priscilla said at the end of the book that she set out to write this book to showcase “love, wonderful moments, ones filled with grief and disappointments, a man’s triumphs and defeats, much of it, with a child-woman at his side feeling and experiencing his pain and joys as if they were one.” This is in contrast to the way Priscilla felt other stories about Elvis had been written where they focused on his “weaknesses, violent temper tantrums, eccentricities, perversions, and drug abuse”. In this way, Priscilla’s intent was super clear with the way she wrote this book, so, yes, it’s a very rose-tinted look at Elvis as well as Priscilla’s relationship with him. Despite this, I should say that, as a rule of thumb for myself, I don’t really rate autobiographies/biographies less than 5 stars unless the writing is, like, glaringly bad from a technical standpoint, so while the lack of ability on Priscilla’s part to really reflect and understand her relationship with Elvis and see the abuse and grooming she endured, that’s by no means something I’m going to give a bad rating for.