Haywire (book)

Important characters

Leland Hayward – Brooke’s father, who was a charismatic gentleman and a well-known theatrical agent and stage, film, and television producer “who taught Fred Astaire how to dress and whom Katharine Hepburn called ‘the most wonderful man in the world’–even after he ended their romance…,“ and who “thrived on the glamorous Hollywood scene.“ His clients included Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Ernest Hemingway, Judy Garland, Ginger Rogers, Billy Wilder, Gene Kelly, Myrna Loy, Herman Mankiewicz, Gene Fowler, Gregory Peck, William Wyler, Fredric March, Boris Karloff, Lillian Hellman, Helen Hayes, Dashiell Hammett, Greta Garbo, and Katharine Hepburn. He was a Tony Award-winning Broadway producer of Call Me Madam, South Pacific, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, and Mister Roberts, among others. After his marriage to Margaret Sullavan (who was another client) ended in 1948, he went on to marry Nancy “Slim” Hawks (later Lady Keith), and Pamela Digby Churchill (later Harriman).

Margaret Sullavan – Brooke's mother, who was both a Hollywood and a Broadway star, by all accounts a superb actress, and known for her husky voice and “irresistible crooked grin.” She performed with the University Players at Harvard, made her Broadway debut in 1926, and starred in 16 films including the classics Only Yesterday (1933), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), and Back Street (1941). Before Leland Hayward, she was married to actor Henry Fonda and director William Wyler. According to Brooke, she loathed Hollywood, was fanatical about her privacy, and was determined to bring up her children properly in a perfect, beautiful home. Her death at age 50 (in 1960) by barbiturate poisoning was ruled an accident.

Brooke Hayward – Brooke, who appeared on the cover of Life magazine when she was 15, became a model and actress before she wrote Haywire. Her film and television credits include Mad Dog Coll, the Twilight Zone episode "The Masks," and Six Degrees of Separation. She has been married to Michael Thomas, Dennis Hopper, and Peter Duchin, and now lives in Connecticut and New York.

Bridget Hayward – Brooke’s younger sister. She was in and out of mental institutions in her teens, and worked at the Williamstown Theatre as an apprentice. She “succumbed to a recurrent, unexplained illness marked by epileptic seizures and bouts of severe depression” and her death at age 21 is considered to be a suicide.

William (Bill) Hayward – Brooke’s younger brother. He, too, was in and out of mental institutions such as the Menninger Foundation. He produced Easy Rider in partnership with Peter Fonda and loved motorcycles for the rest of his life. He shot himself in the heart in 2008.

Contributors

Throughout Haywire, Hayward uses snippets of oral history from interviews she conducted with people who knew her immediate family members (several of whom qualified as “family friends”) to provide outside perspectives on what they were like and on how the family operated. Many of these contributors are notable:

Though their contributions (of “time, memories, and love”) are not marked as quotes in the text, Hayward also acknowledges:

Introduction and Epilogue

The 2011 paperback edition includes an introduction by Hayward’s family and personal friend Buck Henry – actor, director, and Oscar-nominated screenwriter (The Graduate) – and an epilogue by the author, both of which are dated May 2010. Henry introduces us to Leland and his "crazy kids," while Hayward’s epilogue discusses the years since Haywire was first published, thanks Henry for urging her to finish writing it, and, most notably, covers her brother William’s death (he shot himself in the heart in 2008). The "epilogue is remarkable for its uninflected tone. She offers nothing remotely consoling about redemption or overcoming adversity. And that is one of the most bracing and strangely affirming aspects of this book."

Reception

Within a month of its publication, Haywire was “heading for what appears to be a huge commercial success.” It became a #1 New York Times Best Seller and was on the list for 17 weeks. The New York Times Book Review described it as “a Hollywood childhood memoir, a glowing tapestry spun with equal parts of gold and pain. As a book it is an absolute beauty – a Hollywood beauty, to be precise – with all the charm that term implies, the deceptive simplicity, the complex hidden machinery and, above all, the terrible cost.” Critics noted that the book, though published when Brooke was 39, deals mostly with her life up to her very early twenties and is mostly silent on her personal tragedies (the most evident of which were failed marriages) that occurred in the intervening years. The new epilogue addresses this issue, albeit briefly.

Another New York Times writer noted that one of Haywire’s themes contributed to a 1970s trend: "'Survival,' as opposed to action and creativity, seems to be the dominant motif in much of 70’s popular culture, especially in some books… Brooke Hayward’s childhood, described in 'Haywire,' has been discussed as if it had been the domestic equivalent of an Iranian torture chamber."

Movie

Haywire inspired a Warner Bros. made-for-TV movie by the same name. First aired in 1980, it was directed by Michael Tuchner and starred Lee Remick, Jason Robards, and Deborah Raffin. The film was produced by Brooke’s younger brother, Bill Hayward. A New York Times TV writer made note of its non-chronological “ambitious time scheme” and called it “an exceptionally fine-tuned television drama.”