Natalie Wood, said Dennis Hopper who was one of her many lovers, did her best acting playing Natalie Wood.
Finstad explains the dichotomy of the woman who was one of Hollywood's movie goddesses until her 1981 death by drowning in the seawater she had feared all her life.
Finstad createsa theme out of Wood's identity confusion: she had begun life as Natasha Zakharenko, but became Natalie Wood at the age of 6, lost inside her mother Maria's fantasy.
From being an emotionally abused and exploited child star, she went on to top international stardom in movies such as Rebel Without A Cause.
A sex symbol, she was linked with Elvis Presley, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty and Robert Wagner, whom she married twice, among others. Twenty years after her death aged just 43, it's a good time to look at her glamorous yet tragic and alcohol-soaked life.
Finstad brings coherence and a real sense of narrative to a life that was packed so full of disparate people and events, movies and lost weekends.
