Dear Cary: My Life with Cary Grant

I didn't know much about the relationship between Cannon and Grant, other than that they had a child and they divorced soon after she was born.

I found it enlightening, in that we don't usually hear about the darker side of our beloved celebrities. Cannon's relationship with Grant followed the typical cycle of abuse. Being charmed by a narcissistic, charismatic man, being wooed and loved, and, then once he had her in his grips, showed his true colours. Fortuneately, Cannon found the strength to get Jennifer and herself out of that situation and break the cycle of abuse. A truly difficult story to tell, but I am glad that Cannon had the courage to share it.

Writing style was a bit stilted and at times I felt like there were huge pieces of information missing, or perhaps chunks of 'time'.....but still and interesting and shocking look at the 'real' Cary Grant and behaviors that one would never imagine this handsome leading man to exhibit. I felt Dyan Cannon's confusion and fear at times at who this man was that she had fallen in love with. A great read.

I really enjoyed this story and I think Dyan Cannon did a remarkable job telling such a painful and private tale. Most of the book was a delightful love story, but the love story turned dark after the couple was married. Of course I expected this as I knew they were divorced. Overall there were quite a few lessons to be learned about spousal abuse, fame, drugs, and so on. While Ms. Cannon wasn't physically abused she certainly suffered emotional abuse at the hands of Cary Grant.

This was a brutally honest book about Dyan Cannon's relationship with Cary Grant, the depth of despair she experienced after she married him, and her journey to becoming whole again. Grant was a very complex individual but also seemed very insecure, and Cannon's analysis of his shortcomings have been covered in other books. She tried her best to understand him and "change" to be the person he wanted. Unfortunately, no matter what she did, she could never become the person he wanted. Yes, there was a 33 year age difference between them and like all girls of Cannon's age, you expect Prince Charming to come along and to everyone, Grant was, and still is, Prince Charming. However, Cannon does not discuss the bitter custody battle that took show more place with Grant over daughter Jennifer or if she ever met Grant's last wife. This is a great companion piece to daughter Jennifer's book on Cary Grant that was published about the same time. show less

I honestly don't recall having ever seen Dyan Cannon act in anything, so I can't speak to her talent there, but a great writer, she is not. However, I still found myself fascinated by this book because a) I think it's authentic to Cannon's experience, and b) I love Cary Grant, and reading about a portion of his personal life was fascinating.

Sadly, though, fascinating doesn't always equate to wonderful or uplifting. I came away wishing I hadn't read a lot of it, and just feeling sad for everyone involved. I think I'd prefer to go back to not knowing about some of it. I have to give Cannon full credit for her attempt to be fair to Grant, rather than biased or unkind, but it left a bad taste in my mouth just the same.

More on this book at show more fefferbooks.com! show less

I think I was expecting more from this book. I didn't particularly care for her writing style and her flowerly outlook on everything. I kind of found her to be whiny. I'm not sure why she was so surprised her marriage went south when she had been hounding him forever to marry her and he kept telling her he didn't want to get married. After they finally call it quits there is no further mention of Cary or how they parent together other than a couple of passing sentences. I understand this is her memoir, but she doesn't get very detailed in her own life or Cary's.

This is for the audio version: Read by Dyan Cannon, it's the account of her life with Cary Grant. Perhaps the printed edition would come off better. Cannon does ok, but it sounds like she's reading someone else's writing. For example, she seems to trip over words sometimes that perhaps are words she's not accustomed to using. The story itself was enlightening to someone who knew nothing of Grant's personal life.