Love Child: A Memoir of Family Lost and Found

Amazon asked me for a review, so here goes: I spent every evening of this past week with this memoir. After reading the beginning pages, which are dense and pitch-perfect and devastating in their own quiet, precise way, I decided I wanted to take it very slowly, so that I didn’t miss any of the subtleties. It’s a beautiful book, and it’s so much more than a memoir — it’s actually a study of how memory works, of how inconceivable it can feel when we find ourselves left with no more than a shred of a time we feel we badly need to remember in some more substantial way. The way Huston describes the uncertain terrain of memory: how we begin remembering the memory and lose the connection to the source; the way our minds rewrite our memories without our conscious knowledge; how we sometimes have no more than a distantly firing neuron to alert us to the presence of some important, irrevocable thing — it all resonates deeply. There is so much more to say: how Huston brings a sharp analytical assessment of her inner development as a young girl together with such poetry of expression that the reader occasionally has to put the book down, stand up, and walk around the room to digest it; how she presents psychologically disturbing circumstances in a clear, nearly geometric way, without the slightest shade of self-absorption; how she's able to do the micro and macro view almost simultaneously, stepping back to portray a constellation of individuals from a distance, and then, almost imperceptibly, zooming back in for a detail that fills everything in with color. This is about so much more than being on the fringe of Hollywood royalty. Beautiful book, and highly literary.

Interesting life and well written book. The Huston family stories were many and glad to know her adopted father was supportive and loving.

A very honest telling of a difficult journey through childhood. fascinating details about iconic characters told through the eyes of a lost little girl. Her sense of belonging was tested repeatedly yet her sense of herself emerges gloriously but ever so subtly as the story unfolds. Her writing style is like fine brushstrokes of delicious bits both glorious and heart wrenching. She is a fine painter of character and feeling. I highly recommend this memoir, it is hard to put down!

Fascinating story of a child who never had a permanent home. Includes insights of some famous people, John Huston was a decent man and Ryan O'Neil a cad. Despite her unusual childhood, she now has a family and home of her own.

The writing style makes this not one of the easiest of books to read or understand. I found it necessary to quickly read over some of the somewhat amateurish dribble in order to get a clearer picture of what was being said. Some books are so well written and interesting that you don't want to put them down. This isn't one of those books. Long passages of dull and uninformative narrative that seems only to have been added to increase the page count.

a beautifully conceived and written memoire that seems to come from a place of memory rather r than research which makes all the more powerful. it is unsentimental and moving, the language sparse and lean yet evocative. This is the authors truth and it is a complicated one. It is revealing of her life as a child of a mother dead too young and two fathers who loved her selfishly and imperfectly. Each person introduced is vividly drawn and the author pulls few punches in describing them. but doesn't judge either always careful to subtly remind the reader that they are seen through her lens which isn't unbiased. While there are plenty of famous people , the title of the book is really the story. This is not some salacious tell-all by a bitter child of a celebrity, but a book about brokenness and healing where each person's humanity is respected. Moving, honest, and compassionate.

beautifully written, heartfelt, couldn't put it down, read her sister's recent bio, this one is much more deeper. Angelica"s book was just a lot of name dropping. She comes off as narcissistic- instead of hanging out with the dysfunctional rich and famous , she should have been looking out for her baby sister.This poor girl was orphaned and left to raise herself, its amazing she turned out so well after being raised by all those self-serving wolves.

I don't usually read memoirs, thinking them less interesting than the thrillers and mysteries that I usually read. So I smiled as I forced myself to close the book, unfinished, last night because I needed to get to sleep. This morning I snuggled back under a blanket to read to the end. I would say that's the sign of a well written tale and it smashed my prejudice against the genre. What was I thinking! At first I was drawn to the story because of the Huston family connection. Even from the beginning, I'm sure I was looking forward to the 'good stuff' about father, John Huston, and sister Anjelica, and the film industry. But soon it was Allegra who I wanted to know. Details of the more recent years are missing, although we do peek in on her current life in Taos NM, where Allegra seems happy and fulfilled, connected to family in every direction.

I enjoyed Allegra Huston's memoir very much. She is a sympathetic and modest narrator, describing her encounters with the Hollywood friends and colleagues of her film director father without the slightest attempt to impress - only to remember and to understand the part they played in her extraordinary childhood. She never appeals for sympathy - 'though this could easily have been a little girl lost story - but the reader does naturally feel sympathy for Allegra on a number of counts, firstly that she lost her mother so young (yet with tantalising memories of her), secondly that her father's changing relationships with women involved her in enormous upheaval (including even being sent, strangely, to live with the rather unpleasant parents of her former stepmother),and thirdly that twice in her life she had the experience of being introduced to her own father (she famously had 'two'). It's not dificult to imagine the Janus-like pull that such a revelation would exert and AH describes her feelings of disloyalty to her 'Dad' (Huston) as she got to know her 'father' (John Julius) in a touching way. This is above all a beautifully written book - the author has a poet's eye for detail - and with its themes of childhood bereavement, loss and ever-changing circumstances it evoked 'A Little Princess'. Highly recommended.

The book is well-written and really pulls you into the mind of the child who could not fathom out the why or wherefore of her life. She really wanted parental love yet was passed around and not told the truth about circumstances then suddenly had things thrust upon her because of the personal situation of adults rather than those of the child. The adult woman has successfully reflected how the child thought and felt.

This book was so good. I would definitely read this again. This is only a small portion of her life but there's so many heartbreaks. Definitely recommend this book

A very attractive account of a most unusual childhood. Allegra Huston lost her mother in a car accident when she was a very small child, and was raised by a collection of 'fathers' and 'mothers' in Ireland, America, and England. The book ends with a gathering of all her various families: her half-siblings by her birth father, those by her birth mother, and another brother who was the child of the father who raised her, but not of her own mother. On one level a story about a rather raffish-sounding world of entertainment and its stars; on another level the story of how decently everyone behaved: Huston, who raised her as his daughter knowing full well she wasn't, John Julius Norwich, trying to introduce himself tactfully as her birth father, and do his bit for her; her half-sister Anjelica, doing her best to take care of her, and an assortment of other persons tangentially connected with her family. A tale beautifully told by a mature and accepting voice, showing both the messiness of life, and some of the goodness mixed up with it.

having no idea about allegra huston but being a huge fan of angelica huston i rushed to get this book and was not even the slightest bit dissapointed. i thought that i might be as i didn't know of allegra and thought that i would just be interested in the pages about angelica but my god this book was amazing. fans of fiction, non fiction, memoirs and anything else book will thoroughly enjoy reading this beautiful, heartfelt, honest and astonishing memoir. i was left wanting more and am hoping to discover that maybe allegra huston has written a novel or two because she really is a wonderful writer. defo must have for bookworms! u will not be dissapointed in this eclectic, informative and stunning book. buy buy buy! ;)