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Dear Cary LP: My Life With Cary Grant (2011)

by Dyan Cannon(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0062065319 (ISBN13: 9780062065315)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

HarperLuxe

review 1: Few people outside of their immediate family and circle of friends knew them as Archibald Leach and Diane Friesen. Those were the names they were given at birth. On the big screen and to the Hollywood paparazzi, they were better known as Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon. This is Grant’s story through the eyes of his fourth wife and published twenty five years after his death. A quote from the wealthy Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis may be the key to understanding Archibald Leach and why Diane Friesen’s life with him went the way it did may be found on page 130. Onassis reportedly told the author, “Dyan, my dear, it is a sad fact of life that men who have difficult relationships with their mothers carry it over to the other women they love.”You’ll take awa... morey several things from Cannon’s extremely personal, sometimes embarrassingly intimate memoir of life with the iconic, English-born actor. In real life, Grant’s personality bore little resemblance to the fictional characters he portrayed on the silver screen. After three previously failed marriages, Grant was a classic control freak with his fourth wife, Dyan. When Grant began relentlessly pursuing Friesen in 1961, he was 58 years-old, thirty-three years older than Cannon and, at the time, three years older than her own father! On paper, at least, the three times divorced actor, biologically speaking, could’ve been old enough to be Cannon’s grandfather! This tell-all documentary may also surprise you. It did me. Who knew that Grant was so heavily into experimenting with the extremely dangerous, mind altering drug LSD? Who knew that Grant was somewhat of a personal disciple of the infamous Timothy Leary? Who knew that Grant browbeat Cannon into taking those acid trips with him? Who knew that Dyan would become addicted to medical prescriptions, alcohol, exhibit bulimic behavior and wind up in a mental ward to dry out? Cannon’s tale reads like a romance novel and could easily be converted into a Rock Hudson versus Doris Day movie script. In fact, the dialogue and the madcap high jinks that occur in chapters 14 and 20 alone should remind you of a Hudson-Day caper. Cannon’s tender love letter to Grant, written long after the divorce and long after his passing, with its message of healing and hope, should be worth at least four, tear-soaked hankies.
review 2: I have to say that I would not have chosen this book on the fact that Dyan Cannon wrote it, but I was definitely intrigued by how her life in her 20s fit into the life of Cary Grant in his 50s. While reading, I attempted to put myself in her shoes to toy with how I would have handled the same situations at those same ages. My conclusion was that I would have ended up in a similar vegetative state (mainly due to lack of maturity) as Dyan had in her life with Cary. In her book acknowledgments, she mentioned that she tried very hard to keep Cary's personality and demeanor as true as she could in the book, even his dialect. I truly appreciated this. And my recommendation for the total experience is to purchase the Audible version of the book, since it is narrated by Dyan herself. The wittiness can be read on the pages, but listening to her way of describing things, for me, made it even more enjoyable. I chose to purchase both versions and read along while I listened.My only downfall with the book was that the last 5 or so chapters were dedicated to Dyan finding herself again, and I was expecting more meat to how her relationship was at that time with Cary. After all, they DID have a child together, AND the book's title itself leads me to believe that the journey was all about her life with Cary. less

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