I've never read a bad book on Orson Welles - he's too interesting a character with such a dramatic life arc. This is by his eldest daughter, to his short lived first marriage... the debutante lady who from this was a piece of work, an upper class gal interesting enough to get Welles and then Charles Lederer who then went off with some British army officer Jack Pringle and turned into a stuffy racist bitch in South Africa.
Welles is described as the sort of father that I would imagine him to be - charming, charismatic, kind, hopeless with money and appointments, full of attention when someone was there, not great other times. A big spoiled baby who whined about being betrayed but really that tended to be his own fault - and his version of betrayal was usually that someone didn't want to be his slave.
The best periods were when Chris lived in Santa Monica - step dad Lederer got along well with Welles and Rita Hayworth was a great step mother. It got harder when Hayworth had a child and then really bad when Chris' mother remarried Pringle. They did reconnect at various times - in Hong Kong during the making of Ferry to Hong Kong - and towards the end of his life, when he stopped being so happy go lucky and was more panicky, had endured more direction.
Considering her upbringing Chris Welles turned out remarkably well adjusted - one divorce, it's true, but even that was kind of interesting, with a guy who went to live in South Korea; no drinking or drug habits; a happy second marriage and a decent career writing educational books; lots of globe trotting.
Her aching for a relationship with her father is intense - but her mother wasn't better. The nicest people raising her were the Hills. She forms a nice relationship with Oja Kodar after Orson's death but is never that close to his other children. I did feel the book maybe could have brought Chris' relationship with her mother and Rita Hayworth up to date. But a very good book.
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