Natasha Gregson Wagner's heartbreaking and scorchingly frank memoir More Than Love is a loving but clear-eyed biography of her mother, Natalie Wood, as well as a candid account of the decades Wagner spent grappling with crippling grief and depression. When Wood drowned in 1981, 11-year-old Natasha had already spent more than a year seeing a therapist twice a week about separation anxiety and fear that her mother would die. Her mother's death was the defining moment in her life. "No other event would ever again so sharply etch its mark upon my soul or so completely color the way I navigate the world," she writes, "or leave my heart quite as broken."
Acting from the age of four, Wood was the major breadwinner in her family, and her over-possessive mother/agent made Wood crave attention and rebel against restraints. This dynamic passed down a generation when Wood became a mother. Wagner's abandonment problems only accelerated after her mother's death: "I didn't know how to be emotional without being overwhelmed by my feelings."
Wagner's compelling memoir rejects the tragic and doomed legend surrounding her mother and recasts her as a vibrant woman who was devoted to her profession, friends and family. Wagner also speaks out against the decades of tabloid fabrications of cover-ups and foul play conspiracy theories, often fanned by her aunt Lana Wood for attention and profit. This beautifully written memoir will appeal to movie fans, but Wagner's long search for emotional stability also makes it a compelling tool for those crippled by grief. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant