Genre: Biography/Film
Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781941110874
Three Rooms Press
301 Pages
$13.49; $10.99 Amazon
April 28, 2020
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Nicholas Ray was cinema, The legendary director of such classic films as Rebel Without a Cause was an innovative force who dramatically changed the Hollywood landscape. He was also Nicca Ray's dad, Nick.
Through his movies and letters along with her intimate interviews of family members and Hollywood icons, Nicca stitches together the seemingly disparate pieces of the real Nicholas Ray: a man so devoted to his craft he insisted on spending the last hours of his life surrounded by a film crew; a man who lost everything to drugs and gambling; an absentee father she longed to connect with. Along the way, she unravels the lives entangled in Nick's, including those of Gloria Grahame, Dennis Hopper, John Houseman, and the Ray family itself.
An essential new perspective, with more than 50 photos and letters from the author's personal archive, Ray By Ray redefines this legendary figure through the eyes of a daughter searching for the truth about her father.
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I wanted to read this book because I love everything about the Golden Age of Hollywood and classic movies. I own thousands of them. I don't watch the films of today, but if you ask me about anything doing with the classics, I'll know. Saying that, I was really hoping this wasn't just another book about a Hollywood child who was telling everyone that their life was ruined by their absent parent, and even though they were brought up in luxury, they felt sorry for themselves and trashed their parent.
This book is less about Nicholas Ray and more about Nicca Ray. I don't know how that affects anyone who reads it; it's more of a cathartic lesson by Nicca to bare herself evenly and cleanse her own ghosts to the world. That's not a bad thing; but to be honest, does anyone really care about Nicca Ray? Has anyone even heard of her before now?
I am glad she was able to get clean and sober; I am glad she's not another person lost to the drugs that would have killed her. But unfortunately, this book was less about Nicca's relationship with Nick than about Nicca herself. It started out fine, but then went all over the place until we finally come to the ending. It's like it's trying to be told from different directions and then come together at last.
I wish I could have enjoyed this book more, but I found much of it to be boring, and it just couldn't hold my attention all at once -- I had to read this in several settings.
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