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Wonderful Tonight by Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor, her memoir of her two husbands George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
I never did "get" the thrill of Pattie Boyd. And I very much got the other iconic women of the era, Twiggie, Jean Shrimpton, Brigette Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, later Jerry Hall and others.
Even now, in pictures from back then I don't see it. She did have the perfect body style of the age: long skinny legs, long skinny arms, small narrow torso. Her face was nice but just ordinarily attractive. It's still a mystery why she was an international model, she must have had something, an X factor that doesn't come across on film.
The book is well-written but sterile. While she states her emotions, "I was blissfully happy", "I cried all the way to LA", there is almost no emotion in the writing.
She doesn't say why George Harrison was the love of her life, or why she married him. Just that she was madly in love with him and never fell out of love, even when she was with Clapton. She doesn't even include the circumstances of their first kiss. I don't expect sexual details but the first kiss to Beatle George Harrison would seem significant.
I don't get the feeling that she ever really loved Eric Clapton, his well-known obsession with her that lasted until he got her, seems to have flattered her, topped with Layla, but she remained detached. It was George's blatant affair, in the house that he Pattie lived in, with Maureen Starkey Ringo's wife, that finally sent her running into Eric's waiting arms.
Where the same rock'n'roll chaos proceeded apace. The circumstances of his proposal to her were beyond absurd and yet she still said yes.
She says marriage to a faithful husband would have been a joy. Okay then why marry Eric Clapton whose way with women was well-known in the late 70s. It's like Priscilla's wistful complaint, all she ever wanted was a normal married life. And so she married Elvis?
And while marriage to George when they were both very young might have seemed reasonable in the mid-60s, by the mid-70s Pattie was no longer a babe in the woods.
She seems to have loved the rock life style of drinking, partying and drugs.
It's interesting that both men were madly in love with her and then lost interest in her in spectacular fashion. Cruel fashion.
While she praises both of them and expressed her love for them she was clearly hurt by the many infidelities they did little to hide. Why that should come as a shock to her is just naive on her part.
And for their part why did rock musicians get married in that crazy time? So many did and then just acted like their wife was married but they weren't.
Anyway I've got about a hundred pages to go and growing rather tired of the pointless drama and Clapton's odd behavior as he substituted Corvoisier and lemonade for heroine. In spite of detailed descriptions of crazy antics and moody withdrawals the reader never really gets to know George or Eric, or for that matter Pattie herself.
Unless really curious about a niche part of the 60s/70s I don't recommend this book, and doubt I'll finish it.
I've been wanting to read that Wonderful Tonight. I really appreciated a lot of your comments and probably will agree with you when I read the book. I do remember her and I think much of her appeal was her girl next door cuteness- she was not a raving unique beauty, but just cute and definitely had the baby face that was the desired face of the 60's as I can recall.
I cannot imagine both George and Eric.
I HAVE to read that book!
I've been wanting to read that Wonderful Tonight. I really appreciated a lot of your comments and probably will agree with you when I read the book. I do remember her and I think much of her appeal was her girl next door cuteness- she was not a raving unique beauty, but just cute and definitely had the baby face that was the desired face of the 60's as I can recall.
I cannot imagine both George and Eric.
I HAVE to read that book!
Thanks for the great review! Think I'll skip it as my interest was George and Eric.
Never did get the allure of Patty Boyd, to me she just looked like the average girl next door
Disturbing in the sense that it is accurate about life in Russia at that time?
I thought it was a compelling read…hard to put down to do other things and sad…
I had to go on Goodreads to learn that it was historical fiction rather than non-fiction. I'll tell you one thing about the subject; there are reasons that so many successful Americans are descended from emigres of the Soviet Union and Czarist Russia and that Russia is not advancing.
Just finished Appointment In Samarra by John O'Hara. It rambles a bit but is worth it for his style and insights into the country club crowd of small town America in the late 20s and early 30s.
Currently reading Norwegian Wood by Murakami. Simply can't put it down.
I Considered It by Rachel Wells
(these books are not publicly available)
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