Biographies & Memoirs , History
GoodKnight Books
15 Apr 2019
2/5
NetGalley
The story of one of the most enduring and beloved stars Hollywood has ever produced -- Audrey Hepburn -- has been told again and again since her passing in 1993. An Amazon search of books with her name will produce well over a thousand titles, with every aspect of her life but one covered in print: her years during World War II when she lived in the Netherlands under Nazi rule.
On April 15, 2019 -- just weeks before what would’ve been her 90th birthday -- critically acclaimed and bestselling biographer Robert Matzen reveals the true war story of this cinematic icon. The book, as shocking as it is vital and triumphant, is DUTCH GIRL: AUDREY HEPBURN AND WORLD WAR II [GoodKnight Books].
The culmination of years of painstaking research by Matzen -- who conducted new interviews with people who knew Audrey Hepburn in the Netherlands, unearthed secret diaries, gained access to previously classified archives, and combed through decades of her own infrequent but revealing reminiscences in interviews -- DUTCH GIRL contains substantive proof of holes, errors, and inventions in every previous Audrey Hepburn biography that’s touched on her life during the war years. In fact, the real story is more incredible than anything presented by previous biographers.
From debunking the mythology of Hepburn’s lineage (did the wealthy van Heemstras actually have their money stolen by the Nazis?) to revealing the extent of her involvement with the Dutch Resistance and an active role tending wounded of the famed “Bridge Too Far” battle of Arnhem, DUTCH GIRL is a definitive biography that exposes an extraordinary story of courage, tragedy, perseverance, and triumph -- and contributes immeasurably to the legacy of one of the world’s most famous actresses, fashion icons, and humanitarians.
Audrey’s Dutch (somehow…), I’m Dutch… there’s the reason to pick up this book. Now I’m not really into biographies; they tend to distort history, colored by the author without me being really able to check all the facts. But that’s how it is…
From WWII on it covers her life focussing on the impact her early WWII years had on the rest of her life.It’s not mine, it’s all too much “Audrey is a goddess who didn’t do anything wrong”. The writing style is primal; for instance, war scenes are depicted as throwing firecrackers from the sky “Every second the thump, thump, thump of the cannons could be heard.”
I had a feeling Matzen had a story to tell and created a book out of it to gain some pennies.
My advice: don’t touch this book!
