Hughie and Paula: The Tangled Lives of Hughie Green and Paula Yates [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

I have to agree with bookkitten on this one. Chris really didn't want to believe that his father was the horrid person he had always witnessed growing up. He wanted to believe that there was some good in him, but after the awful eulogy at Hughie's funeral, he realized that his father was that same awful person he had known his whole life.

You really have to feel for Chris when you read this book and wonder how he turned out so normal after what he had been through-growing up with Hughie. His sister, Linda, seems to have inherited some of their father's traits (ridiculing others, placing blame on others) and Paula....Well, she did suffer the ultimate abuse from Hughie even though she knew nothing of him for the first 37 years of her life. It was really hard to decide if she was better off finding out about Hughie at the age she did or if she would have been better off knowing when she was younger. After thinking about it, she would have been better off not knowing about him at all. The man would not have done right by her when she was child, and he definitely would not have done right by her when she was older. She would have suffered from his actions either way. She was in a no-win situation. I really feel bad for her and what she had to go through in the last few years of her life. You can tell that Chris desperately wanted to help her and find out why Hughie was so horrid. Not only did he find the answers to Paula's questions, but he also found some answers to his own. Truly a tragic story.

Chris Green has a real way with words. His bewilderment, sadness, and good-heartedness are obvious throughout the book and his descriptions of how his father, an exploited and neglected child, came to be the woman-hating scoundrel that he was are fascinating and chilling. Perhaps saddest is the fact that up until the very end, as Chris sat at his father's death bed, he wanted to believe in the man's essential goodness. That belief was shattered at Hughie Green's funeral when a tabloid reporter revealed that the deceased had a famous love child. It was then that Chris Green and his sister Linda were spun helplessly into a maelstrom that would end with Paula's death and their efforts to protect their niece Tiger.

By uncovering the mystery of his father's behavior, the author has demonstated the multi-generational damage that can result from child abuse, exploitation, and neglect. One's heart goes out to him and his family, as well as the once-incandescent Paula Yates. It seems that she, ultimately and undeservedly, suffered Hughie Green's ultimate revenge.