Audiobook Review: Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
Softly, As I Leave You: Life After Elvis by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
Narrator: Priscilla Beaulieu Presley
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: September 23, 2015
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Priscilla Presley’s divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. How could she leave the man every woman wanted? From the outside, life in Elvis’s mansion looked glamorous and enviable, and in many respects, it was. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was seventeen years old, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her ten years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis’s world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive, for herself and for her daughter.
Softly, As I Leave You, is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved. Despite the legal separation, their love for one another transformed into a touching and tender dynamic that endured until Elvis’s untimely death four years later. Shattered by Elvis’s passing, she had to reinvent herself a second time as the single mother of a talented, often headstrong daughter who never really recovered from her father’s death. Priscilla’s dedication to motherhood was enriched by the birth of her second child, and she gradually found her footing as a businesswoman, actress, designer, and legislative advocate. She transformed Graceland into an international destination and helped guide the development of Elvis Presley Enterprises. But the unexpected, shattering loss of three immediate family members years later brought Priscilla to her knees. She shares her journey with a quiet dignity that will comfort and reassure anyone who has suffered–and survived–seemingly unbearable loss.
A compassionate, and inspiring story of finding your place in the world, Softly, As I Leave You, is a sweet Southern melody that will take the listener with Priscilla on her long road home.
Softly, as I Leave You is Priscilla Presley’s second memoir. Her first, Elvis and Me, was published in 1985. She does write a little about her childhood and early life with Elvis in Softly, as I Leave You but it’s covered in a lot more detail in her first book. I’ve read Elvis and Me and it’s not necessary to have read it to enjoy Softly, as I Leave You.
One of the things Priscilla writes about is her relationship with her daughter, Lisa Marie. Lisa Marie’s memoir, From Here to the Great Unknown, came out in 2024 after her death and was already out when Priscilla was writing her book. In some ways, it feels like this book is a response to Lisa Marie’s book. For instance, Lisa Marie says in her book that Pricilla’s live-in boyfriend Michael Edwards sexually abused her, and she told Priscilla, but Priscilla says that she had no idea that had happened until she read Lisa Marie’s book. There are other situations discussed where their viewpoints were different as well. It’s not often you get both sides of the story like that, and I thought it was cool, having also read Lisa Marie’s book.
She also talks about her son and grandchildren as well as her acting career. She narrates the book herself – a celebrity memoir is almost always better when the celebrity narrates the audiobook and that is the case here. She has a slow, dreamy voice – I was able to speed up to 2x speed and I’m normally at 1.5x!
Celebrity memoir fans and Elvis fans alike will enjoy this book.
(I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for review.)
