Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found

by Allegra Huston

Book Overview

- Inside a legendary American family: Allegra Huston was the third child of John Huston's fourth wife, the beautiful ballet dancer Ricki Soma. In this graceful, penetrating memoir, Allegra takes us into the world of a child unmoored by her mother's sudden death and sent on an odyssey which took her from John Huston's fabulous estate in Ireland, to the American suburbs, to a hidden paradise in Mexico--and, at the side of her older sister Anjelica,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416551581
• ISBN13: 9781416551584
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

I bought this book since I'm a huge Anjelica Huston fan. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance unlike one of the previous reviewers had to met Allegra Huston and hear her read from her book(I am so envious ).I'm having a hard time finding some thing that previous reviewers have not already posted.This book is amazing as the ratings have mentioned. Huston examines her life subsequent to the death of her mother and it's implications/ramifications on her life, which was being shuttled around and her relationship with her adopted and her real family.This book was beautiful, enrapturing and moving.I would like Huston to see her try her hand at fiction....

don't miss it!

This is a shattering tale of constant displacement told without a trace of sentimentality by a truly talented writer. Huston's debut is a must read. It grabs you and it doesn't let you go.

Brilliantly written

Absolutely brilliant. LOVE CHILD marks the debut of a major writer. Allegra Huston's powers of description and characterization are breathtaking. Her portrait of John Huston is quite simply a masterpiece: she has written the classic portrait of one of Hollywood's most complex, fascinating, and elusive characters. Huston has peopled the pages of her dramatic and heartbreaking memoir with a whole gallery of unforgettable characters. And the voice of the child Allegra herself will haunt you long after you have finished the book. Ireland, Mexico, Malibu, and London--all come to vivid life in her talented hands. This is a book of rare intelligence and sensitivity.

Should be an Oprah Book Club pick

Yes, it's that good. A story of fate, love, family, sex, loss, and redemption, Love Child is a tender, courageous memoir that is remarkably readable, intelligent and moving. Allegra is a masterful story teller, but beyond that she's funny, humane and endearingly self-aware. Most memoirs recount facts, this one invites us in and I often found myself wanting to talk back when someone was harsh to her. I wanted to hide out in the tress to catch a glimpse of her crazy grandfather doing hand stands on the widow's walk of one of the many homes she grew up in and I laughed out loud when Jack played an outrageous practical joke on Marlon Brando. I wanted to know her and in the end I wanted her to have a storybook ending. This is a story that will stay with me for a long time as a reminder that there is very little that can't be overcome if you let love find you -- and if this wonderful story isn't enough, there's a sixteen page family photo album in the middle that by itself is worth the price of the book!

All that glitters is not gold

Such an insight into a life, that would by all appearances be one of indulgence and frivolity. On the contrary we discover the glaring absence of parental presence and love, and the amazing skills it takes to navigate the waters of such a childhood. The wry observations of a self contained child are at times hilarious as are the unexpected challenges that come from of the privileges she is presumed to have enjoyed, but has not. This is a poignant tale of, all that glitters is not gold, and the delicious discovery of, that which has meaning is what you discover for yourself.