Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford
by Donald Spoto
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Donald Spoto is one of my favourite Hollywood biographers. I've read five Crawford biographies and find it impossible to rate one higher than the others. Inescapably, many details are rehashed across all of them. This one I liked slightly more than than the others I've read. If I were recommending which ones to include in your coverage (there are so many), this would be near the top of my list.
Joan became such a contentious biographical topic in the aftermath of 'Mommie Dearest' that her apologists closed ranks and, understandably, became hyper-defensive, rallying to restore her good name - to such an extent that they sounded at times to collectively lose objectivity.
That's fine, any intelligent reader can see past this, we feel the passion of the authors which makes for good reading in itself.
I like to make my own mind up about the subjects of biographies and usually can.
That Joan Crawford was no saint becomes clear enough after covering a few biographies, that she was no monster either is also clear. She was a fascinating woman and a great, great star.
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