Books

Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee - by Their Son Dodd Darin

Average customer rating:

Dream Lovers
Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee
A courageous look at two entertainment idols by their son
Heartfelt accounting of his parents lives
Heartbreaking, honest and real

Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee - by Their Son Dodd Darin
Dodd Darin
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Entertainers | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Art Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Bobby Darin - Beyond the Song
Bobby Darin: The Incredible Story of an Amazing Life
Roman Candle: The Life of Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin - Mack Is Back
That Funny Feeling

ASIN: 0446517682

Customer Reviews:

Dream Lovers.......2007-02-07

Loved this book. It will make for another interesting movie about these two lovers whom after they met were forever joined together solidified even more by their son. Tragic love story and had it not been for Bobby's short time on earth I am sure they would have worked it out and stayed together forever.

I cannot help but feel for Dodd who somehow hoped that his parents could have worked it out. As the son of two wonderful icons, he showed us the turmoil in their lives.

I thank Dodd for sharing his pain as well as his happy times with his parents though short lived.

Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee.......2006-09-09

Penetrating. Worth looking at, taking the information at face value. Too bad the information is a little TOO personal and private and probably would not have been wished to have been shared, perhaps by his father, at least. Nobody is proud of their most embarassing moments.

A courageous look at two entertainment idols by their son.......2006-03-05

"Dream Lovers" is a daring book. Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee's son Dodd Darin sorts through his parents' shattered lives and marriage. His express purpose is to write definitively rather than risk seeing their story further distorted by others. He also seeks therapy: making sense of himself by exploring his parents' lives.

In a fine writing job by collaborator Maxine Paetro, Dodd tracks their trail of secrets by talking to those who knew them best. They had deeper secrets than most. Bobby never knew who his real father was, a secret his mother and grandmother took to their graves with them. And Sandra's childhood sexual abuse by her stepfather - combined with her overprotective mother and the cocooning studio system - left her an eternal child who couldn't cope with life after her movie contract ended.

I praise Dodd for so unflinchingly detailing their flaws while still loving them. One may argue it's precisely warts that sell such a book. And that's true to some extent. But reading this book may be most difficult for the Darin and Dee fans who are the most likely to read it in the first place. I'm in the first category, and this tarnished Bobby's shine for me - although perhaps I just have a more realistic view of him. I find it noble of Dodd that he is willing to write, say, that his father's brash arrogance was real, not just a press distortion. Or that his treatment of his birth family was shoddy and his financial provision for them, inexcusable. Or that said family really were such vulgarians as to make filial love difficult. Or that the Darin marriage may have sexually foundered because Sandra wasn't kinky enough to do threesomes or watch pornography with Bobby. This is not a hagiography. It took great courage and honesty of a son to write this candidly of his parents, while still wanting to build relationships with long-estranged relatives, and to regard affectionately the memories of those gone.

He explores the mystery of Bobby's parentage. Some thought Bobby resembled "brother-in-law" and actual stepfather Charlie Maffia, a New York sanitation worker who helped raise him and was devoted to him. (Bobby never paid him more than $150 a week as his valet, and Charlie would have done better to remain a garbageman and at least retire with a pension, sister Vee opines.) Others thought the circumstances suggested Bobby's dad was a married mobster. But Vee recounts seeing their mother, waiting outside a doctor's office, visibly stunned at the sight of a man she then tells Vee was a friend of Bobby's father. Vee concludes it was the father himself, and that Nina's story revealed to Bobby in the 1960s - that Dad was a medical student she had a brief fling with and never told of the pregnancy - was true.

Dodd is wounded by the darker view he develops of his grandmother Mary Douvan, whom he loved. Mary was a classic stage mother who wouldn't leave Sandra's side even when Sandra was grown. Dodd touches on, but doesn't seem to grasp, the key to Mary's character: Her great fear at being alone. To cure it, she attaches herself to Sandra by making herself indispensable. And the only time this seems not to be true is while she is married to Eugene Douvan, with whom she works; little Sandra works long days modeling and comes home to an empty hotel suite in the evening. Dodd never figures out how Mary could not know about her husband's abuse of Sandra between the ages of 5 and 11 (Douvan then died) and concludes she was in denial. Dodd doesn't give Mary enough credit for forging and protecting Sandra's career, for understanding the realities of public image that predated and precluded today's confessional-style handling of celebrities' failings; and for keeping Sandra alive as the latter sank into an alcoholic and anorexic reclusiveness. Mary supported her daughter and grandson by selling real estate following Sandra's career plummet. Is this enabling, or is this survival? (I found myself wondering if Eugene Douvan might have been the model for Humbert Humbert of "Lolita", written by Vladimir Nabokov, like Douvan an upper-class Russian émigré and about the same age. Douvan told people he married Mary to get Sandy, which is exactly what the fictional Humbert Humbert does.)

There is tragedy and redemption here. Bobby Darin, condemned to an early death, rocketing to heights, constantly changing shapes, crashing to earth, emerging from a midlife crisis, only to die, from an avoidable health downturn, before his second career could really take off. (And remember, with Sinatra, it was the second career that made him an icon. The first one just made him a bobby-soxer idol. Bobby Darin died at age 37. When Sinatra was 37, he hadn't won his comeback Oscar yet.) One can find redemption in Bobby Darin's story, at least: that he emerged from the wilderness a better person and reborn entertainer, one kinder to others, less egotistical, more socially conscious, and having crossed a generational gap that his older Vegas peers could not. Sandra Dee, meanwhile, is America's sweetheart. For years she ranks with Taylor and Hepburn at the box office. She is so perfectly beautiful that, one envious onlooker says, she looks better rolling out of bed without makeup than most women ever do at all. But she leads a life bizarre at its core. She has no friends, she can't dress herself, she only eats lettuce, she drinks and gambles compulsively. After her star wanes, she briefly rallies, going public with her problems around 1990, but can't sustain the comeback. The gap in her life - from teen idol to authentic adult - is one she never manages to cross. For her, there is only tragedy.

Heartfelt accounting of his parents lives.......2006-02-25

I am grateful that Dodd wrote this book. His Father has not been given the credit due him. I hope others reading this book will have a greater appreciation of his contributions to American Music history. It is easy to forget that Sandra Dee was the top movie star at the time since she withdrew from the spotlight. The book is very well written.

Heartbreaking, honest and real.......2006-01-28

After having recently sort of rediscovered Bobby Darin's music, i searched out this book at the public library (one copy available among seven or eight libraries in the area), and i am so glad i did. I have never reviewed a book for Amazon before, but i am hoping that the book will perhaps be reissued in paperback to gain a wider readership. It never drags as so many celebrity bios do, because of the way Dodd Darin lays out the events of his parent's lives: he breaks the book into sections which focus on one time frame and one parent at a time. It is fun to read about the quick ascent of Bobby and Sandra to stardom, but it is heartbreaking because, as the title says, both their lives contained more than the average amount of struggle and pain. The writing is excellent, and Dodd's intelligence and depth of understanding and compassion for his parents and other family members and friends shine through on the page. Read this book if you have any curiousity at all about these people. You won't be sorry you sought it out.

Mothers, Sons, and Lovers: How a Man's Relationship with His Mother Affects the Rest of His Life

Average customer rating:

Mothers, Sons, and Lovers: How a Man's Relationship with His Mother Affects the Rest of His Life
Michael Gurian
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Absent Fathers, Lost Sons: The Search for Masculine Identity
What Could He Be Thinking?: How a Man's Mind Really Works
The Good Son: Shaping the Moral Development of Our Boys and Young Men
What Stories Does my son need?: A Guide to Books and Movies that Build Character in Boys
The Wonder of Boys

ASIN: 0877739455
Release Date: 1993-11-23

Book Description

Through exercises and guided meditations, the author provides the means to uncover the influence of the primal bond between a man and his mother and to facilitate healing thereâas well as in marriage, parenthood, friendship, and all other relationships of love.

Sons and Lovers (Modern Library Classics)

Average customer rating:

Weak Characters
Sons and Lovers
Pretty Good, Def. A Classic
Autobiography Reigns Supreme
Thank you, Baxter Dawes.

Sons and Lovers (Modern Library Classics)
D.H. Lawrence
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Women in Love (Dover Thrift Editions)
Lady Chatterley's Lover (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
To the Lighthouse
The Way of All Flesh (Giant Thrifts)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0375753737
Release Date: 1999-08-17

Amazon.com

Sons and Lovers was the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives."

Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her." Soon thereafter he even confesses to his mother: "I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you."

The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from the working-class mining world to the spheres of commerce and art (he has fair success as a painter), he accepts that his own achievements must be equally his mother's. "There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was hers."

The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity. Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape that offers up its blossoms and beasts and "shimmeriness" to Paul's sensitive spirit. Sons and Lovers lays fully bare the souls of men and earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing short of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner. --Melanie Rehak

Book Description

With a new Introduction by Geoff Dyer
Commentary by Anthony Burgess, Jessie Chambers, Frieda Lawrence, V.S. Pritchett, Kate Millett, and Alfred Kazin

Of all Lawrence's work, Sons and Lovers tells us most about the emotional source of his ideas," observed Diana Trilling. "The famous Lawrence theme of the struggle for sexual power--and he is sure that all the struggles of civilized life have their root in this primary contest--is the constantly elaborated statement of the fierce battle which tore Lawrence's family."

Sons and Lovers is one of the landmark novels of the twentieth century. When it appeared in 1913, it was immediately recognized as the first great modern restatement of the oedipal drama, and it is now widely considered the major work of D. H. Lawrence's early period. This intensely autobiographical novel recounts the story of Paul Morel, a young artist growing to manhood in a British working-class family rife with conflict. The author's vivid evocation of the all-consuming nature of possessive love and sexual attraction makes this one of his most powerful novels.

For the critic Kate Millett, " Sons and Lovers is a great novel because it has the ring of something written from deeply felt experience. The past remembered, it conveys more of Lawrence's own knowledge of life than anything else he wrote. His other novels appear somehow artificial beside it."

Download Description

Drawing on both the physical setting and emotional atmosphere of his own childhood, Lawrence's evocation of a working-class life and of family conflicts is a literary masterpiece rich in insights into its author.

Customer Reviews:

Weak Characters.......2007-06-12

Gertrude Morel thought at first that she was getting into a good marriage. Walter Morel seemed happy and successful and was not a drinker. She thought he would make a good husband and a good father to their children. It was only after they were married for awhile that she found that he spent much of his time drunk and didn't own any of the property he'd told her he owned. A seed of resentment was planted.

Once their children, especially two sons, William and Paul, were born, Gertrude stopped caring much about her husband at all and concentrated on her offspring.

Paul ends up with his mother's undiluted attention and affection. His decisions are largely based on keeping her happy, and when his thoughts wander to other females, such as those he dates, his mother grows petulant and her pouting convinces her son to come back to her. Although Paul has a good job and a bright future as an artist, he finds himself unwilling to commit to the girls he dates, because nobody can quite match up to his mother in his mind.

This is a sad story of a mother ruining her son's life without meaning to. She really only wants to love him, but her love is so overbearing that she doesn't leave room for anyone else in his mind.

The characters in this story didn't grab me. They were all incredibly weak, from Walter with his drinking problem drifting farther and farther away from his family; to Paul, unable to break away from his mother; to Gertrude, unable to make a life for herself and clinging to her son instead; to Miriam, allowing herself to be hurt over and over instead of walking away from Paul once and for all. They all needed to have some sense shaken into them.

Sons and Lovers.......2007-05-28

This book didn't seem to have the normal climactic format that I had expected, which is perhaps why it is considered a piece of literature and not popular fiction. The book as a whole read rather flatly, without much action or drama, a fact lending itself to its rather autobiographical nature. It was nonetheless, very beautifully written. The book seemed more poetic in composition and most certainly more emotionally intense than perhaps would be expected. In is in fact the poetic sentiments and composition of the book that keep the reader so engaged into what would otherwise be a rather depressing work. It is ironic that a work that seems to focus so much on the reality of life would at the same time evoke a romanticism of feeling and words which it would normally criticize. That too also seems to be the conflict Paul Morel finds within himself.

Pretty Good, Def. A Classic.......2007-03-26

I enjoy reading the works of D.H. Lawrence. I believe no other author of his time explored the complexities of human sexuality, behavior, intimacy, and depth as poignantly as him. By far I loved Lady Chatterley's Lover, his most famous and controversial novel. SONS AND LOVERS is the second Lawrence book I've read. I can't really say if I truly liked the book or not. I believe that what this book explores is deeply interesting and even haunting, seeing how controlling and possessive a mother could be on her sons, and how deeply attached sons could be towards their mother. It was also interesting seeing the complexities of the characters grow and develop with each chapter. I can definitely see why SONS AND LOVERS is considered a classic. The only flaw i found with this novel was how annoying Paul Morel is. I just found his behavior to be pathetic and ridiculous. But other than that, this is a great read, but not necessarily Lawrence's BEST work.

Autobiography Reigns Supreme.......2006-08-27

Few novels by any author have ever been examined under the microscope of autobiography more thoroughly than SONS AND LOVERS. Nearly every character represents someone from the life of its author D. H. Lawrence, who clearly has used himself as a model for the protagonist, Paul Morel. To complicate matters there is a well-documented undercurrent of the Oedipal Complex between Paul and his mother Gertrude (also the name of Hamlet's mother who was linked to Hamlet in the same potentially incestuous way). Lawrence was later to deny ever having read Freud but his much older wife Frieda (a dead ringer for Gertrude) has written in her memoirs that she had several discussions with Lawrence about just that theory.

Gertrude, a pretty woman of twenty-three marries a handsome, virile, but loutish man named Walter. Their marriage is unhappy since he drinks, is abusive, and has nothing in common with his wife. They have four children of whom Paul is the focus of dramatic interest. He is artistic, sensitive, and hates how his father treats Gertrude. She in turn lavishes on him all the love that might otherwise have gone to Walter. As Paul matures, he meets two women of consequence: the virginal and puritanical Miriam and the earthy and sexually aggressive Clara. Gertrude approves of Clara but disapproves of Miriam. From an Oedipal perspective, Miriam is a threat to Gertrude's primacy over Paul while Miriam as a floozy is not. Paul has an extended affair with Clara that she breaks off when her husband re-enters the picture and beats the crap out of Paul. Paul has a single sexual contact with Miriam, knowing that she would find it most distasteful, so he breaks off this relationship. Gertrude dies of cancer with a push from Paul. Walter becomes a cripple and drifts out of Paul's life. Paul devotes his life to his art as the book ends. All of these characters relate to Paul in ways that are at best weird and at worst ugly to contemplate. As Gertrude smothers Paul with a misplaced affection, she makes sure, perhaps unknowingly--we are not sure, that he will have difficulty relating his own burgeoning sexuality with any other woman. Miriam, in her sexlessness, is a Gertrude surrogate that Paul can feel comfortable with so long as they do not achieve intimacy. Clara is the chippie that Paul can show physical affection toward only so long as he does not show emotional intimacy. It is no surprise that both relationships turn out badly. Walter, who starts out as the Bad Guy, slowly accrues the sympathy of the reader as he has a positive side that even the confused Paul can see.

SONS AND LOVERS may be full of a constant undercurrent of sexual energies running at cross purposes, but it is not necessary to see the book only or even mostly in terms of seeing a twisted Oedipus to enjoy reading it. There are other non-sexual themes at work that engage the reader. Lawrence was upset over the slow disintegration of English society caused by an encroaching industrialism that he saw as crushing the human spirit. Whether one chooses to see SONS AND LOVERS under a sociological or a sexual lens is a matter of personal taste. Lawrence, who was an advocate of freedom of choice, would certainly agree.

Thank you, Baxter Dawes........2006-08-08

If Paul Morel was a real person who lived in today's world, he'd certainly get invited to a daytime talkshow for being the world's most horrific mama's boy, get booed by the audience for treating Miriam like a dog, and then come back a couple years later via satellite from prison where he'd be doing time for murdering his beloved mother. It would be a ratings bonanza!

I thought Sons And Lovers was a good book, but Paul Morel was one of the most annoying characters I've ever read. Throughout the book, I couldn't help wishing one of the other characters would just give him a swift kick in the rear.

D H Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, the Fox, Love Among the Haystacks, Aaron's Rod, the Ladybird, Women in Love

Average customer rating:

D H Lawrence: Sons and Lovers, the Fox, Love Among the Haystacks, Aaron's Rod, the Ladybird, Women in Love
D. H. Lawrence
Manufacturer: Book Sales
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers

Average customer rating:

My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers

Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Essays & Travelogues | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City
Why New Orleans Matters
Letters from New Orleans
New Orleans Stories: Great Writers on the City
French Quarter Fiction: The Newest Stories of America's Oldest Bohemia

ASIN: 0743293126

Book Description

From famous writers and personalities who call the city home, whether by birth or simply love, these pieces written in the wake of Hurricane Katrina serve as a timeless tribute to New Orleans.

Sentimental, joyful, and witty, these essays by celebrated writers, entertainers, chefs, and fans honor the life of one of America's most beloved cities.

Paul Prudhomme writes about the emotional highs New Orleans inspires, Wynton Marsalis exalts his native city as soul model for the nation, while Walter Isaacson shares his vision for preserving his hometown's pentimento magic. Stewart O'Nan recalls the fantasy haze that enshrouded his first trip to the Big Easy when he was thirty and bowed to Richard Ford to receive his first literary prize. Poppy Z. Brite thanks New Orleans for helping her discover the simple pleasure of Audubon Park's egrets, and Elizabeth Dewberry explores what it means to work Bourbon Street as a stripper.

Book Description

When a trip home for Spring Break turns out to be less than a vacation, 21 year old, Nyzera Wallace becomes the target of long time secrets, hidden lies and a very speedily developed and unexpected relationship.

The divorce of her parents kicks things off, and Nyzera sets out on a quest for answers. Her mother can only provide one point of view, but because of Nyzera's not-so-great relationship with her, "Ma" is kicked to the curb and Nyzera seeks out the one true source she can count on, her father.

"Daddy" sets the record straight. He discloses the past issues with her mother, which led to the divorce, and then he introduces Nyzera to the new lady in his life, Ms. Regina Taylor. Regina is a very successful corporate lawyer with her own practice. She's beautiful, physically fit and a far cry from Nyzera's father's usual type. To Nyzera, Regina is the perfect role model. She's totally impressed with Regina's overall person but even more impressed with her extremely sexy son, Tashán.

Tashán, a 25-year-old interior decorator (not your typical profession for a young black straight male) finds Nyzera just as intriguing, but because of the relationship his mother has with her father he doesn't fall victim to Nyzera's advances.

Nyzera is relentless in her pursuit, though. Tashán begins to buckle under her charm and appeal but soon retreats when his mother drops a bomb on the both of them. As of result of this news Tashán takes action suited for his best interest, and Nyzera is left in a state of utter confusion.

Book Description

Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence, and the price of family bonds. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude Morel devotes her life to her sons. But conflict is inevitable when Paul seeks relationships with women to escape the suffocating grasp of his mother. As profoundly affecting today as it was nearly a century ago, this is the peerless Lawrence at his most personal.
* Includes a new introduction, chronology, and further reading

D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (Monarch Notes)

Average customer rating:

D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (Monarch Notes)
D. H. Lawrence
Manufacturer: Monarch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Test Prep Central | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0671007165

Books:

Books