Watch Me: A Memoir

We left Anjelica Houston at the LA Airport in part one of her memoir, where she and her recent love had split. This was a very uncomfortable time, but Anjelica knew it was necessary. She moved on living in her father's girlfriend's home. She went into modeling again, and then tried her hand at acting. She had had a terrible experience working with her father in a film, but she loved acting, and she took some classes. Several wonderful films were made in her film career and she won an Oscar in 'Prizzi's Honor'. Her family included a sister and two brothers. Several with different mothers. But this was the way of her father. Her childhood was one of privilege, but she lost her mother early in life due to an accident. Her father was an enormous star and difficult to deal with . She loved him, but he was not around very often. Anjelica was of the age in the 60's and 70's where women were starting to come into their own. They were more independent, finding their way as was Angelica.Much of this memoir centers around her years with Jack Nicholson. A charming ladies man,,great actor, and she fell madly in love. The ladies man was a big issue, and even though they spent many years together,she found she could never trust him. They eventually split when he had a child with another woman. Anjelica filled her life with friends and work. And then she met a man, Robert Graham, a famous sculptor. Love turned to marriage and probably the happiest part of her life. In the interim her father had died, and she and the family mourned him. Life with Bob was fabulous, travel and exciting times. And then he too died, unexpectedly. Anjelica was again, alone.She has picked up the pieces and moved on with her career. She has friends and family. Her life it seems, has been one of love and loss, extreme highs and lows. This second part of her memoir gives us more insight into her psyche, but mostly includes her famous friends and fashions, and foods, countries and parties. It seems she must have kept a diary, and her memoir is based on the times and events. Rather moving at times, and well written. This is Anjelica's life and the way she wants to share it. A favorite phrase that Anjelica repeats seems to me to fit her life. 'In hunting, when you face an obstacle, throw your heart over before jumping.'Recommended. prisrob 11-16-14

Read her first book about the earlier part of her life and really enjoyed it, and had eagerly awaited this follow up.I like her poetic style, and her strong sense of the visual, and ability to convey the sense and feeling of a place with such effectiveness. She seemed to me to have a true soul of an artist, not just as an actor, but in the visual and language sense as well (no wonder she was drawn to a sculptor in her choice of partners).There were parts of the book that were not so entrancing to me, that I have noticed are a pitfall of books in this genre, the ''then then then'' syndrome when the author has a lot of events over time to describe, and it can come off like a dutiful laundry list, vs the poetic deeper experiences, where things may be more ambivalent or poignant.For whatever reason, relaying tales of challenge and pain come off more interesting in general than the regaling of triumphs and wonderful trips. And she had a lot of deserved triumphs and accolades after a certain point in her career. It was interesting to read about the rejections she did sustain in her early career, I had not known this about her and it made me respect her. Even though her father was the legend he was, and she had all kinds of connections in the film world, she fought for her career.I think she was quite discreet in the dish department, and handled her descriptions of the years with Jack Nicholson quite well...and it says a lot to me about his lack of vanity that he didn't rein her in on how he came across, and in her being honest in her story, he doesn't always come across as a sterling character, but definitely fascinating, complicated, someone who lives on his own terms and has his own strong sense of loyalty and integrity. There were echoes of her father in his nature, the singularity, the masculinity, the droit de seigneur, kingly fashion of living (and this rarified way of life seems a norm for men of a certain level of power, wealth and influence...and explains the extreme moral warping that can occur in men (and the occasional woman) who get that power early enough and who don't have some earthly anchoring to save them from their potential undoing.She allows herself to be portrayed in sometimes unflattering light, which is refreshing from a celebrity, and she is delicate on some of the more explosive and juicy parts of her experiences..but I do think she laid clues to the identities of a couple people.Enjoyable if you are an existing fan of her work, and even if not.

I was very absorbed in Anjelica Huston's first outing with her upbringing in Ireland and her relationship with her very famous director/father John Huston. I suppose her second outing feels more like she is skimming the surface of her life with Jack Nicholson and her later marriage to an artist. There appear to be a lot of descriptions of what certain women were wearing on particular occasions, which I can only assume she has gleaned from photos of those occasions, as if there is the need to fill the page with some information about these people whereas in fact she actually has little to say about them. I also feel she has been somewhat overly careful about describing her relationship with Nicholson for whom she still clearly feels a great deal of love. Having said that, I still enjoyed reading it.

I read the first book in her Auto biography and I have to say they were both very good reads. Angelica Huston has led a very interesting life, and is a very classy lady. Angelica delivers a page turner without lowering herself to "dishing the dirt". Her life was s full it easily filled two books without it getting drawn out or sketchy.I felt sorry for her in a way that she wasted so much time on Jack Nicholson, in an emotional way of course, because life must have been very interesting with him in many other ways!!!! I think I would have fallen for him too, which woman wouldn't have in the 1970"s, so she was very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time and partied hard.I'm glad she fulfilled her ambitions as an actress, as she is very talented. Even with someone as talented and well connected as Angelica you can still smell the desperation for roles at times. It's sad really.All in all a great read, that you feel sad to be coming to the end of. She cams across as a lovely lady who had a lot of fun, whats not to like!

I love Angelica Houston! I love watching her act- She is a highly accomplished sensitive Actress. She is not good at expressing herself or her emotions in words. What one comes across is a rather immature young adult, who drifted, year after year, who slept here and there, with a longing for a "marriage" . There is a lot of confetti- a lot of name dropping, of people of no talent mixed with and written about on the same level as highly and much respected talented-

If you are Anjelica's fan, this book is a pure gold.Lovely, vibrant prose. I enjoyed it enormously, it's very honest, full of insight into the old Hollywood, new Hollywood, happiness, heartbreak but also humor.Although, if you are not a fan and simply looking for Hollywood gossips, look the other way, there's no dirt here.I loved it and can't recommend it enough, I'm pretty sure I will read it again.

One of the most boring books I have read. If you like reading casual references to 'famous' people she might or might not have gone to bed with then you will enjoy this book. Reads as if it was a lot of notes put together by an editor to capture the ' Hollywood star' as an author market.