Sven Broman

If I didn't keep choosing fiction over finishing up this book, I could have read it in a day or two.

Conversations with Greta Garbo is anything but cohesive. Broman writes (rather randomly, almost 3/4 of the way through), "The picture I am drawing of Garbo may seem a bit jumpy and disconnected." He's right--it does. He chocks that up to Garbo's own individual way of thinking and communicating, but Broman surely could have constructed a less fragmented volume. I'm not sure I have a ton of faith in Broman, but this is still a fun book.

Reading this and perusing its many photographs, the discomfort of being interested in, feeling empathy toward, and respecting Garbo is really hitting me in a way it hasn't so much in the past. Quite a few of the pictures here look personal. Some of them, such as the photos of Garbo on board the Drottningholm with her friends the Lundborgs, are wonderful and terrible at the same time: they show a natural, private Garbo. I love them, but I can't ignore the nagging feeling that they're none of my business. A portion of the other pictures reproduced here are obviously paparazzi shots--the very kinds of intrusions into Garbo's daily life that troubled her so and made her feel like she had to retreat into a deeply private world.

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