What Falls Away: A Memoir
by Mia Farrow
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mia FarrowEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-12-01
ISBN: 0553564668
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of What Falls Away: A Memoir
Book Review: ... A Rose By Any Other Name...
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a lover of memoirs, and this is the best one I've read in a long time. Mia's candor is praiseworthy, and I found this to be a very important book with meaningful themes. Mia is a tender woman with a tender heart, and I can't find it within myself to be overly critical of her or of her naivete with regard to relationships with men. I think she knows what her emotional abandon cost her, and cost her children. Still, she is an amazing woman with a generous heart. Others may be critical of her "obsession" with children, but I thank God for people like Mia who dare to love the "unlovable" children of the world --- children who have been tossed away without a care or a thought.
The story of Mia's marriage to Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn, and her long-term relationship with Woody Allen comprises most of the book. Through these relationships, she comes to terms with her own vulnerability, neediness and deep desire for intimacy. I don't think she's very different from a lot of women; different, perhaps, in how she chooses to go about attaining meaning in relationships. And certainly she is more passive than many women would have been in similar circumstances. At points during the book, I found myself angry with her for not just up and walking out, calling the police, getting a restraining order --- SOMETHING!! Instead, the lines I read were something to the effect of, "he wouldn't leave. I kept asking him, but he wouldn't leave, so I just let it go." Even after she was suspicious of Woody's (possible sexual) behavior toward their adopted daughter, Dylan, she was actually OVERJOYED when Woody encouraged her to adopt another girl, seen only in the photos of a boy she was trying to adopt!! I couldn't believe it...I thought she'd really flipped at that point. But throughout the book, I am reminded just how human Ms. Farrow is, and I am reminded of the humanity in us all --- the stupidity we knowingly walk in because it temporarily satisfies something in us, the deep desire for intimacy and love we itch and crave and long for, the desire to hope for good, hope for absolute good in people. We have all fallen in similar ways, I'm sure, perhaps, though, with different consequences. Unfortunately, Ms. Farrow's children had to pay the ultimate price for her lack of sound judgment. Unlike other memoirs I've read, she does, however, take responsibility for her wrong doing, and I appreciated that. She and her children have suffered greatly, have experienced a terrible loss, from which they may never fully recover. I do wonder about Soon-yi, though. If she was young and naive when Woody first persuaded her, why did she continue? Did she not appreciate the devastation and pain her relationship with Woody caused her mother and all of her brothers and sisters? Perhaps these questions and others may never be answered -- not for the reader, and possibly not for Ms. Farrow and her family. Still, the book is more than worth the time. An excellent read.
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