Victoria Wilson

This book written by a major editor needs editing! Some transitions are rough, there is often too much information and detail, facts get repeated, typos, etc. At close to 1000 pages with the index, bibliography, etc. this book is a huge time commitment and as much as the author did a tremendous amount of research and made a serious effort to provide a lot of background, it was a tough slog through the entire thing. The book doesn't cohere well and the ending is abrupt.

This book will be the definite Stanwyck biography but I wish a better writer wrote it. Many biographies have horrible writing: in no way could one say that's an issue here. Wilson's writing is fine but it's just not a pleasure to read.… (más)

Finally! Ugh, what a slog. I really, really wanted to like this book, since I love Barbara Stanwyck. But good lord, this book needs an editor. Or another editor. Or ten editors. It reads as though the author, literally, dug up every piece of minutiae ever published about Babs, her family, and anyone who ever associated with her peripherally or tertiarilly (fake word!) and then narrated it chronologically. Seriously, we don't need to know about movies she never made. We don't need the bio of a playwright who wrote one not-very-famous movie she did. We don't need every soundbite ever fabricated on her behalf in fan magazines. Throughout the deluge of unnecessary info, the book also veers between topics, with sections and even sentences barely related to each other at times. It really reminds me of essays I'd write in school where I was systematically going through sources, stripping out any useful stuff, and sticking it into paragraphs without much concern for how the entire thing flows. This is where that editor would come in.

It's too bad, since she deserves a book that doesn't make reader(s) want to throw it across the room. 860 pages, and she's barely 30 years old! If I start reading part two, whenever it arrives, please, somebody stop me!… (más)

I'd have to agree with the previous reviews - a lot of information, but that seems to be it. It's more of an encyclopedia than a life story - it's just a series of facts or publicity quotes, in some cases.
What was a real treasure are the background stories of everyone Barbara meets or works with. We get a lot of how some of the famous, even legendary Hollywood personalities got their start and where they were career-wise and personal life wise up to the time they intersect with Barbara.
Not sure if I'll pick-up the next volume.… (más)