Daddy's Litte Girl: Book Review of "In The Name Of Gucci" by Patricia Gucci

"Relationships can be tricky to navigate.  Those we have with our parents can be the most complicated and often require compromises once we come to the realization that none of us live in a perfect world and that the people we love are flawed." - Patricia Gucci
Sometimes in life we don't necessarily get the hands we want; we get the hands we're dealt.  It's up to us to play that hand wisely so that we come out a winner or break even, but all in the name of having a good-spirited game.  
Patricia Gucci knows this all too well.  Her memoir "In The Name Of Gucci"(Crown Archetype) is the emotional tribute and recollection of her life as it related to her infamous father Aldo Gucci and her strong smitten mother Bruna.  Quite often we tend to think ill of the less popularized version of a story since we tend to buy what we're first given.  However, a long believer in hearing both sides of a story, I was captured by how this memoir reiterates that love is truly complex.
Love is complex in the way Aldo Gucci wanted to be strong and untouchable yet fell victim to love's relentless drive enter one's heart.  The complexity grows as his obligations to his already established family, his work and his quiet awe that love truly makes things happen produced secrets, long distance romance, Old World charm, resentments, longings and bittersweet memories.  Throughout the story we see a young innocent almost devil-may-care Bruna transform into an wizened, understanding heartbroken woman who oftentimes had to fight back her heart and use her mind.  
Patricia, the optimistic lovechild, emerges as a learned woman, not devoid of emotional distress but fully aware that what fuels her habits have stemmed from her parents' tumultuously passionate past. What becomes clearer as the book evolves is how Bruna's deciphering of the messages and actions she received from Aldo directly affected the levels of strengths and amounts of reflections that both she and Patricia had to endure.  Bruna's lovesick, strong silent, passive introspective, even distant demeanor lent a hand in Patricia's inquisitiveness, search for love and support and emotional strength.  In the same way, Aldo's unavoidable distance, underlying tenderness and infectious presence seemed to give Patricia a strength she would have to see she had once in the thick of her life's encounters with family, business and learning the truth about her parents' relationship.
Such an interesting read about the life of a fashion magnate told in a real way from an honest perspective that humanizes and helps transcend wealth, class and race all in the name of a daughter's love for her father.  It's an insightful chronologic family and telling romantic love story that shows that true love forgives and never dies. 
In The Name Of Gucci by Patricia Gucci (Crown Archetype, Hardcover 320 pages) is available now in bookstores and online.