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jewelkr's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Autobiographies are difficult to review - this is someone's life story and it doesn't need to be critiqued. This was a very difficult book to read, as full as it is with family abuse and addiction. It's been a lot of years since it came out and Tatum O'Neal was 41 years old when it came out, which may seem old to some people but given the complete lack of parental guidance in her life the telling of her story still sounds like it is being done by a child. There is, despite the horrific things done to her as a child and into her early 20's, a naivety that is distressing. In the Prologue she mentions meeting a man who sexually assaulted her in her early teens, greeting him politely, as well as referring to the director who tied her up as a child actor to force her to learn her lines, as an old friend. I can only wish for her that the years since have given her more perspective to hold fully accountable all the people in her young life who should have protected her and abused her instead.
I can only blame editors for the tone of the book which presents many of the horrible things she went through kind of ... in passing. eg. and then when I was at a party the adults gave me drugs. These things that happened were truly traumatic. They don't have to be described in detail, but they need more pause, more thought, more reflection, otherwise the reader is left reeling and having to process someone else's trauma in their own muddled mind.
The other thing that makes it difficult to read is that her recovery at the end does not get enough press. After going through this awful life with a celebrity who we probably envied, we want to know how she made it through. We want to know what that struggle was like, and why it worked for her. And we don't get much, so again we are left to process by ourselves. If a publisher is going to put a book out that deals with addiction and abuse, there is a responsibility to provide the reader with some resolution.
So the only thing that I felt I benefitted from in reading this book was the realization that being the child of a celebrity may put you on track for early success but that is meaningless when no one is there for you. It makes me grateful for my ordinary life.
I can only blame editors for the tone of the book which presents many of the horrible things she went through kind of ... in passing. eg. and then when I was at a party the adults gave me drugs. These things that happened were truly traumatic. They don't have to be described in detail, but they need more pause, more thought, more reflection, otherwise the reader is left reeling and having to process someone else's trauma in their own muddled mind.
The other thing that makes it difficult to read is that her recovery at the end does not get enough press. After going through this awful life with a celebrity who we probably envied, we want to know how she made it through. We want to know what that struggle was like, and why it worked for her. And we don't get much, so again we are left to process by ourselves. If a publisher is going to put a book out that deals with addiction and abuse, there is a responsibility to provide the reader with some resolution.
So the only thing that I felt I benefitted from in reading this book was the realization that being the child of a celebrity may put you on track for early success but that is meaningless when no one is there for you. It makes me grateful for my ordinary life.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Misogyny
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