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Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations  By  cover art

Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations

By: Peter Evans,Ava Gardner
Narrated by: William Hope
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Publisher's summary

This wickedly candid memoir that Ava Gardner dared not publish during her lifetime offers a revealing self-portrait of the film legend's life and loves in Hollywood's golden age.

Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood's great stars during the 1940s and '50s, an Oscar-nominated leading lady who co-starred with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others.

But this riveting account of her storied life and career had to wait for publication until after her death, so concerned was Gardner with its frankness. 'I either write the book or sell the jewels,' Gardner told co-author Peter Evans, 'and I'm kinda sentimental about the jewels.'

The legendary actress serves up plenty of gems in these pages, reflecting with delicious humour and cutting wit on a life that took her from an impoverished childhood in North Carolina to the heights of stardom.

Get ready for the most revealing Hollywood autobiography in decades.

©2013 Peter Evans and Ava Gardner (P)2014 Audible, Inc

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Secret and Unapproved

Any additional comments?

At the end of the book we find out that Ava worked with Peter Evans on her memoirs but backed out on the book when she learned that Frank Sinatra had sued Evans sometime before Ava hired Evans and Evans had not told her. After Evans death, people worked with his notes and put together this book. This rather explains why half the book is Evans 'complaining' about Ava calling him at 3 am and their arguing about including her cuss words. Evans has a whining tone and Ava appears careful. This book is probably unfair to them both. A bit later, Ava wrote her own book "Ava, My Story" and it is immensely better. Her own book has lots of color about Hollywood and its stars and moguls and delightful color about herself, written by her and including chapters by some of the people around her. Just to mention one big difference: in the Evans books, Evans has Ava declare she only slept with the Spanish matador once. In her own book, Ava relates a detailed love affair. Also, there is very little in the Evans book about Sinatra but a lot in Ava's book. By the way, she loved all her husbands.

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11 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Ava and Author Joust

Any additional comments?

The book is really more of a book about the interviewing of Ava Gardner, than it is a book about Ava Gardner herself. The author's approach is to recount in dialog the series of interviews he did with Ava, before she called the whole thing off (presumably under the direction and money of Frank.) The content is not as candid as it proclaims, but there is enough Hollywood dirt to have made it interesting. Also, you learn about early Hollywood and country girl Ava.

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Should remain a secret

I was expecting old Hollywood scandals as Ava Gardner dishes details about her husbands and lovers. NOPE. It is the story of a guy writing a story. The author is seriously telling about all of the phone calls and meetings where he talked to Ava Gardner and he has to drag the details out of her. Chapter after chapter drags on with him getting one small tidbit to share as Ava Gardner is old and sad and half drunk complaining about it being the end of her life. This is unbelievably depressing and not what I was expecting to hear during my brutal commutes to work. If it was so hard to get the stories out of Ava why does the listener have to hear it all? Couldn't the author summarize into an actual story? I am so bored with it I am returning it. I can't keep going through the depressing bits to see if I ever get to hear about Frank Sinatra.
Also, it is really bizarre to hear the narration. It is a man doing the voice of the British male author and also a half drunk old lady Southern accent. I wish it made it funny but it only makes the whole story worse.

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Interesting, but one-note narration

What did you love best about Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations?

Ava! Love her conversations and monologues!

Did William Hope do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

No. His worst offense, however, was making Ava sound like a falling-down drunk in EVERY line she spoke. Even if she had been drunk in all of her conversations with the author, it gets irritating and boring listening to a character who NEVER varies her pace and slurs every sentence. She sounds, in this version, like a man in drag. That gets old fast. It also is vaguely misogynistic.

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A book about an Interview!

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It's just too long and dull. I was hoping for an interesting biography about this fascinating woman, but after 4 hours I gave up.

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Only halfway through, but lots of fun!

What did you love best about Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations?

William Hope's narration is fantastic - so much fun to listen to and I love how he speaks for Ava - very campy (in the best, most flattering way) - cracks me up!

What other book might you compare Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations to and why?

Wow, tough to say, since it is written from the writer's perspective (which is unusual).

Have you listened to any of William Hope’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, this is my first exposure to William Hope and he is great. I will definitely seek other works by him

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I am only halfway through the book, so I will have to wait and see

Any additional comments?

Having lots of fun listening to this. The audio quality is excellent too - give it a try!

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Ava looks back at the difficult parts of her life

When we meet Ava Gardner in this book, she is 65 years old, a stroke has taken the movement of her left arm and robbed her face of her beauty. She is alone in London, without friends and family. She is sick, and in her own words she had 'made a f*#&g mess of her life'. She is also broke and selling her biography reluctantly for the money. Rock bottom.

The book is set both in the current day of 1984 or so with the opportunistic ghost writer trying to cajole her into spilling the most salacious details of her life and marriages in order to sell books, and the her story from the 30's, 40's, 50's as told by Ava Gardner. Both strands are interesting.

As Ava Gardner tells her story we realize she started with nothing beyond her sexual desirability. She could not even speak, her southern drawl was so strong. With only that as a lure, she moved through her life. Now, after her stroke, alone and without her looks, she had a lifetimes worth of manipulative tricks to play cat and mouse with our ghost writer. You get the feeling she enjoys the company, the intimacy and the games.

She had a fascinating life that included 3 marriages and numerous affairs. Why they failed, how she feels about the failures and how she justifies the failures to herself in order to go on living is the secret sauce that the ghost writer is trying to get to. And she was loathe to give it up, and even having to go back to revisit it to tell her story was painful for her.

Ava Gardner will remember her life the way she wants to. But as you listen to her, in her unguarded moments you can see though the cracks of the surface stories to the truth that is beneath. The writer does not spell it out to you, he leaves you to discover it for yourself.

It is a clever book, and a well painted portrait of a really interesting character, and a wonderful woman.

The narrator was outstanding on this audiobook. The voice of Peter, the ghost writer is in his natural British accent. The voice of Ava is done in an American accent. Since Ava Gardner had smoked 60 cigarettes a day for 45 years at this point, the smoking surely being largely responsible for her strokes and her emphysema, a coquettish male voice with a Southern drawl lulls you into believing you are listening to the actual voice of Ava Gardner. It is quite a remarkable performance.

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fascinating, gossipy Hollywood history.

this book is not what you expect. I hate to express too much for fear of giving away the twist at the end... But it is a biography you will not soon forget because of the awesomeness of the subject and the humanity of the writer.

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Loved this story

Loved the narrator so very interesting hated to see it end . Ava was a very unusual person and had a really funny sense of humor

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A genuine life story

An honestly telling and extremely interesting insight into the life of a Hollywood legend that reminds us that even icons are still humans with passion, emotions, regret, and pain.

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