Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Everyone here who has already mentioned how unintentionally hilarious this book is-- right on! Yet it is also a tragically exploitative book; as opposed to the genuine anguish depicted in "Mommie Dearest." While Christina Crawford may or may not have been motivated by revenge in writing her book, she actually had something legitimate to avenge. There has been ample evidence from countless sources-- family, professional associates of her mother's, and subsequent bigraphers --that the horrors Christina catalogued were far from fictional. B.D. Hyman, on the other hand, has received no such affirmation. With very few exceptions, even those who agreed that she had every reason to resent her mother's faults were concerned by the manner in which the truth was manipulated in MMK. As nearly every Bette Davis biography written subsequent to MMK's publication has evidenced, B.D. Hyman, her husband, & her sons were COMPLETELY DEPENDENT UPON BETTE DAVIS FINANCIALLY. The fact that Bette Davis had NO CHOICE but to work to support the Hyman family, despite advancing age & its attendent diminished career options, goes far in explaining much of the tension between Davis & her daughter, not to mention Davis's well-chronicled antagonism toward her son-in-law-- a man who had not maintained consistent gainful employment since the mid-late '60s. This is all documented in various Davis biographies published after 1985. By her own admission, Hyman decided to write MMK only AFTER witnessing the extent of Davis' recovery from two strokes & a mastectomy due to cancer. Fearful that her mother would no longer be able to work/support her (just prior to her illness Davis had saved the Hyman farm from foreclosure), Hyman decided to cash in. Even after receiving a six figure advance for MMK, the Hymans were still in such a bad financial situation that they didn't sell their farm before relocating to the Bahamas; they abandoned it for the bank to reclaim in their absence. HAD SHE MENTIONED THE EXTENT OF HER FAMILY'S FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE ON HER MOTHER IN MMK, DO YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD HAVE EVEN BOTHERED TO PUBLISH THIS SHAMEFUL ABORTION? Bette wasn't a particularly good parent during BD's childhood or adulthood, but nothing in the book or in any book about Bette justifies the treachery of BD writing this book in her mother's lifetime. Financial necessity & the sense of entitlement of all spoiled, over-indulged children drove her to it. As Bette herself concluded, "B.D. thought I was going to die. That's why she wrote the book."