Just finished reading Furious Love, a blow-by-blow account of the many ups and downs of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Whereas Jane Fonda spent her marriages trying to be whatever her husband envisioned, or embodying a “type” (Ingénue, Activist, Trophy Wife), Taylor sought men who would challenge her, stand up to her and try to dominate. Alpha Males were her thing and the phrase “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them” comes to mind as you read the travails of these two Alphas.
Some of the best things in the book were copies of the letters Burton would leave for Taylor to pass on his thoughts to her, even if she was in the other room; what true delight the man took in language. Taylor clearly had an enormous erotic hold over Burton and his writings reflect his desires to be subsumed by his “Jewish tart”.
“I lust after your smell and your paps, and your divine little money-box and your round belly and the exquisite softness of the inside of your thighs, and your baby-bottom and your giving lips and the half hostile look in your eyes when you’re deep in rut with your little Welsh stallion”
Mutual self-destruction abounded to the point where I found myself asking just how is it that a person can become so detached from reality, or form a reality that is so at odds with how the “rest” of us live. Folie à deux, perhaps?
Whilst Taylor lived in a manner that is mind-boggling even when compared to the footballers and Oligarchs of today, she had an uncanny ability to get on with a wide variety of people across differing social spheres. She would be the friend you knew would cross hell-and-high-water to help you, the go-to person when a crisis hits. So, she was detached from mere mortals yet curiously attuned.
Taylor was groomed for stardom from an early age and as such had learned to live in public privately, that is under a veil or in a bubble that protected her and prevented people from “getting in” so to speak. Burton did not have this protection and found himself struggling to live up to the role of Mr. Elizabeth Taylor.
Furious Love is very readable, however I found myself wanting a bit more detail in some parts, a feeling I did not get when reading Love Is Nothing or My Life So Far. It’s a bit more than an airport read and is indeed fascinating to be returned to a time when a celebrity could be condemned by the Vatican as “a woman of loose morals…”
