The Big Love

Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. Women's Studies. Film. Memoir. THE BIG LOVE is a Hollywood nightmare. It tells the story of Errol Flynn--a fading, alcoholic movie star--and the underage dancer-actress Beverly Aadland. The narrator? Beverly Aadland's fame-worshiping mother Mrs. Florence Aadland, who spurs the relationship on. There is nothing subtle or sympathetic about this memoir: It is outrageous, grotesque, surreal, notorious--an intimate look at Hollywood exploitation and decay. On the one hand, THE BIG LOVE depicts the deterioration of Errol Flynn, an actor who is quickly losing relevance after years of playing irresistible swashbucklers in films such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). He is riddled with medical problems, drinking himself to death. On the other hand, there is Mrs. Florence Aadland, also an alcoholic, an uncultured stage mother psychotically pushing her daughter Beverly forward even at the cost of her own marriage. A bizarre, seedy time capsule of the 1950s, THE BIG LOVE is the long-lost literary sister of Barbara Payton's I AM NOT ASHAMED. And, after languishing out of print for years, it is ready to shock brand new audiences with its absurd humor, villainous characters, and sickly dissipation.