Marlene Dietrich

As soon as Dietrich arrives in Hollywood, the book stops feeling like a biography and becomes very, very gossipy. There is very little of the woman herself, and a lot of how her daughter perceives her. We are given glimpses of her that feel cartoony even if that could very well be her actual behavior. Which is valid, and I don't want to minimize the things Maria Riva went through, but perhaps the the book would benefit from a title change, something like “Marlene and The Child”.