In The Bastard of Beverly Hills, Rafael Moscatel shares the heartbreaking story of being given up for adoption by a renowned family of musicians, a decades-long odyssey to tear down the web of lies that kept him from uncovering their lurid past, and his inspiring journey back home— not to the fabled estate where he was raised but a place he could finally feel comfortable in his own skin.
This poignant and whimsical memoir begins in 1977, after an infamous lawyer buries the secret of Rafael’s origin, placing him with an eccentric, well-connected family from Beverly Hills. Worried he might find out and run away, his adopted mother convinces her friends, including television’s biggest star, Michael Landon, to help conceal the truth. But when Rafael begins to catch on to her lie, he’s discouraged from asking more questions. He bravely embarks on an impossible quest to discover what happened, only to find himself at the center of an old Hollywood scandal that was never meant to see the light of day.
An artful, empathetic, and moving account of a boy, then a man, trying to find himself, The Bastard of Beverly Hills reminds us of our spiritual strength. It is a testament to the power of hope, forgiveness, and redemption. In unmasking and facing the monsters that once haunted him, Rafael shows us it’s never too late to overcome abandonment, learn to forgive, and find the love we deserve.
Assessment:
Plot: Moscatel crafts a deeply engaging story that will undoubtedly resonate with readers. The author unravels the narrative and family secrets uncovered in a well-paced and entertaining manner.
Prose: Well-written with wit and honesty interspersed throughout, Moscatel comes to terms with his upbringing, his own identity, and his family's past. Through careful diction, his thoughts transform his feelings about his predicament.
Originality: Moscatel has a truly unique story to tell and does so with refreshing candor and emotional integrity.
Character/Execution: Readers who may be seeking their own answers about tangled family history will find much to appreciate in this narrative. As a character in his own story, Moscatel's emotional and psychological journey is significant and authentically portrayed.
Date Submitted: December 20, 2022
Moscatel recalls living among the famous—and living with a secret—in this memoir.
The author, a film director, presents a brief but engaging and surprise-filled memoir of a man whose true identity was kept from him well into adulthood. The adopted son of Ray and Eleanor Moscatel, a Sephardic Jewish couple living in Beverly Hills, Moscatel was adopted after the tragic death of his parents’ natural son, Albert. Moscatel details how he had always been aware of the ambiguity of his origins (his parents at one point claimed was as a “test-tube baby”), and that it was only later in life that he found out the truth and began to heal from the psychological damage of his parents’ subterfuge. On a lighter note, Moscatel has plenty to share about living in Beverly Hills among the famous, some of whom were friends and neighbors to the Moscatel family. He recounts his family’s close friendship with actor Michael Landon and his family, as well as various members of the Gilbert family, whose oldest daughter, actress Melissa Gilbert, was an adoptee like him. He includes accounts of encounters, both minor and serious, with celebrities ranging from Frank Sinatra to Tony Roma (the latter was briefly his mother’s husband). The memoir is full of twists and turns—the surprise ending regarding Moscatel’s background also speaks to the stigma surrounding adoption that has only recently begun to abate. The author writes movingly of his parents’ own difficulties, displaying understanding and grace: “The emotional upheaval of a loss blurs a survivor’s memory. And their grief, from denial, to bouts of anger, guilt, bargaining, and ultimately acceptance, often ends with a little piece of them dying, too.” Moscatel does not offer the reader a pat happy ending, but his story reaches a satisfying resolution.
A memoir that starts slowly but reaches a powerful conclusion for the patient reader.
