A Story Lately Told

Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York

By: Anjelica Huston

Narrated by: Anjelica Huston

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Writing with an exuberant love of language and detail, Anjelica Huston shares her enchanted childhood in Ireland, her teen years in London, and her coming of age as a model and nascent actress in New York.

John Huston was filming The African Queen - in the Belgian Congo - when he received a telegram from his wife announcing the birth of a healthy baby girl. She named her Anjelica, after her mother.

Now, the magnificent Academy Award-winning actress shares the story of her deeply unconventional life. Living with her glamorous and artistic mother, educated by tutors and nuns, intrepid on a horse, Huston was raised on an Irish estate to which - between movies - her father brought his array of extraordinary friends, from Carson McCullers and John Steinbeck to Peter O’Toole and Marlon Brando. Every morning, Anjelica and her brother visited their father while he took his breakfast in bed. "What news?" he’d ask. "I’d seen him the night before," Anjelica recalls, "There wasn’t much to report." So she became a storyteller.

In London, where she lives with her mother and brother in the early Sixties when her parents separate, Huston encounters the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac. She understudies Marianne Faithful in Hamlet. Seventeen, striking, precocious, but still young and vulnerable, she is devastated when her mother dies in a car crash.

Months later she moves to New York, falls in love with the much older, brilliant but disturbed photographer, Bob Richardson, and becomes a model. Living in the Chelsea Hotel, working with Richard Avedon and other photographers, she navigates a volatile relationship and the dynamic cultural epicenter of New York in the Seventies.

©2013 Anjelica Huston (P)2013 Simon & Schuster

confusing at best

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book is surprisingly more boring than I expected, and flows in a slow and confusing way.

Would you ever listen to anything by Anjelica Huston again?

Probably not.

What aspect of Anjelica Huston’s performance would you have changed?

I usually love books read by actresses, as they make incredible narrators, unfortunately this is not the case for Anjelica Huston.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

This book might actually work better as a movie but I wouldn't be particularly interested.

loved how much her parents were included

most memorable moments her eccentric father and his opinion of being able to kill 3 people 😅

Loved it!!

Really enjoyed this book. I read her second book first so this filled in some of the gaps.

Bio

I generally enjoyed this biography as it is told be the author and read by the author.

Impressive

This is a canny, rich memoir that respects its audience by not talking down or preaching, by not conducting its own therapy on the reader's time, by telling a good story, and even by handling its celebrity subjects without fetishizing or gossiping. She tells stories in such a way that leaves the interpretation of the story to the reader. Huston is an excellent writer with a compelling command of language, and I'd have wanted to read the book even if it wasn't littered with pop culture icons. It makes me a bit sad that she has not had a parallel career as a writer.

Impossible to stop listening

Any additional comments?

Along with the sequel book, still one of the greatest of the books I've listened to since joining Audible. Huston's gorgeous, whisky-toned voice combined with her rich memories make for such satisfying listening. Her confidence in recounting everything without judgment or editorializing partly why it's so fulfilling.

Exquisite

This is the second book I listen to on Audible by Angelica Houston. You have indeed lived an exquisite an exciting life. Your father would be very proud of you. Your mother truly. Thank you for sharing your life. We all have our different experiences. Your journey has been extraordinary Full of such glory and sadness. Beautifully narrated and written. Thank you.

A Story Lightly Told...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Tricky for a memoir...but I would encourage the author to disclose more insights and interpretations of the events of her life, rather than simply fill out the chronological events.

Has A Story Lately Told turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

Which scene was your favorite?

Many of the childhood scenes in Ireland are poignant and memorable, simply for their insight into a class and society that is not known to me. I enjoyed the food, decor, and fashion details in audio form - and felt that the book was more of a sensory experience of places and times, rather than something more "story bound" with arc and resolution.

Any additional comments?

While there is much to be appreciated in the detail and rhythm in this book, particularly when read by the author, I found that Ms. Houston did not offer enough overt sense of her own assessments, insights, and development as a person in this course of this story. Throughout, even in her early adult life, she seems to be simply floating along, going with the privileged opportunities afforded her without much of a critical eye or personal learning occurring. Both parents are given loving and respectful treatment by the author, but I imagine that if Ms. Houston could have spoken more directly about the her feelings in the complexity of her childhood and adolescent experiences it would have been more of a "meaty" and satisfying story. She's a good reporter, but always keeps her audience apart from her - and I never got the sense of being "close" to her and her emotional experiences as things unfolded. This, against the backdrop of elite connections, seems a wasted opportunity for a story of a lucky/unlucky girl really coming into herself with an awareness of who she is in, and apart from, her high society world. As it is, it's a light tale, fun to read but lacking in substance.

Beautiful imagery

You felt as if you were in the scenes Anjelica described. From Ireland to a dirty fishing boat, her descriptions were visceral and stick with you. She is a bit of a fairy god mother.

Wonderful story, whenever told

Loved the details of life in the Irish countryside… and the honesty. Wonderfully narrated and organized.