Her girlhood pet was the real Lassie's grandson. When she retreated to the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who should turn up but all four Beatles. They sang the night away. And while Farrow was in Hanoi undoing an adoption snag, she went to a commissary and found Mother Teresa eating breakfast. Details like these are half the fun of What Falls Away.
Farrow knows how to orchestrate a scene, a sophisticated writing skill.
She also makes each of the children's personalities distinct and, of course, sympathetic, something that professional novelists can have trouble with. But the book will be bought for the parts on Sinatra and Allen. She and Sinatra were happiest in the beginning when they were goofily in love and their relationship was largely secret. Writing about Sinatra and Previn, who was out touring for most of their marriage, Farrow is fairly mild, even philosophical. With Allen she is bitter and exacting.