Helpful Score: 4
As you'd expect from crazy Penny Marshall, this book covers a a lot! It started out telling how much Penny hated taking dance lessons from her mother, a little background on her young life, her parents who hated each other, her blind grandmother, living in the Bronx, etc. She tells of her start in Hollywood, thanks to brother Garry, and her eventual position as movie director. I admire Penny Marshall as a movie director so thought this book would give a little 'who does what...or whom' in Hollywood. She names names and 'kisses and tells'. I was a little disappointed to learn of how often she used (uses?) drugs...and still smokes after her bout with cancer! But those are her choices and to me, she's still a talented women. Overall, it was an okay book, not riveting but worth my time.
Helpful Score: 3
Review first published on my blog: http://memoriesfrombooks.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-mother-was-nuts.html
My Mother Was Nuts is Penny Marshall's memoir, starting in her childhood and going through almost the present. She starts with the fact that she was an unwanted child. She talks about her childhood in the Bronx, her pregnancy and her daughter, her marriages, her abortion, her bout with cancer, and, of course, the trajectory of her amazing career.
I grew up watching Penny Marshall - from cameos on The Odd Couple, Mary Tyler Moore, and Happy Days to Laverne and Shirley. Her movie Big is one of my all time favorite movies.
I came to this memoir expecting to find the same humor and joy as I find in her work. I did not. I am not sure whether that is because, of course, life and the movies is not TV, or because I watched those shows with the eyes of a child and now as an adult, it does not hold the same appeal.
For me, this book has a sad undertone running throughout. It starts at the beginning with her mother stating, "You were a miscarriage, but you were stubborn and held on." She refers to her grandmother as "our building's witch lady." About her divorce from Rob Reiner, she say "Maybe, though, in the end, I did make him sick."
In the dedication, the end of the book, the acknowledgements, Penny Marshall credits the people in her life as what she treasures the most and the the fact that "I've been given my five minutes ... and then some." This tribute seems somewhat inconsistent with the sad, sometimes negative thoughts through out the book. That's family reality, I suppose - the good and the bad and that you can't take one without the other. I, however, cannot shake the sadness of some of what she describes and how she describes it.
*** Reviewed for the GoodReads First Reads program ***
My Mother Was Nuts is Penny Marshall's memoir, starting in her childhood and going through almost the present. She starts with the fact that she was an unwanted child. She talks about her childhood in the Bronx, her pregnancy and her daughter, her marriages, her abortion, her bout with cancer, and, of course, the trajectory of her amazing career.
I grew up watching Penny Marshall - from cameos on The Odd Couple, Mary Tyler Moore, and Happy Days to Laverne and Shirley. Her movie Big is one of my all time favorite movies.
I came to this memoir expecting to find the same humor and joy as I find in her work. I did not. I am not sure whether that is because, of course, life and the movies is not TV, or because I watched those shows with the eyes of a child and now as an adult, it does not hold the same appeal.
For me, this book has a sad undertone running throughout. It starts at the beginning with her mother stating, "You were a miscarriage, but you were stubborn and held on." She refers to her grandmother as "our building's witch lady." About her divorce from Rob Reiner, she say "Maybe, though, in the end, I did make him sick."
In the dedication, the end of the book, the acknowledgements, Penny Marshall credits the people in her life as what she treasures the most and the the fact that "I've been given my five minutes ... and then some." This tribute seems somewhat inconsistent with the sad, sometimes negative thoughts through out the book. That's family reality, I suppose - the good and the bad and that you can't take one without the other. I, however, cannot shake the sadness of some of what she describes and how she describes it.
*** Reviewed for the GoodReads First Reads program ***
Helpful Score: 1
Very good tale of her life. Just don't care for the fact that she says she wasn't a good parent because her mom wasn't and quick note on an abortion she states she had. I find it a good read but limited details on celeb stuff.
Marshall's memoir will be of most interest to people who remember "LaVerne & Shirley", "All in the Family" and "Happy Days". She tells some interesting stories, but nothing is particularly earth-shaking.
If you're looking for the tale of a kid growing up with a wonderful, wacky family (as the title would seem to imply), you're going to be disappointed. The parents Marshall describes were angry, bitter people, locked in a marriage that had gone far past loveless. One wonders why, even in the divorce-rare era of mid-Century America, they didn't simply move to end the conflict.
For whatever reason, Marshall and her brother Garry (creator of "Happy Days", director of "The Princess Diaries" and "Runaway Bride", among others) grew up to be major players in the entertainment industry of the 1970s and 80s. Her ramble down Memory Lane, via SNL and other hotspots, will amuse but not particularly engage the reader, and her inside stories of films like "Big", "A League of Their Own", and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" may send you off to Netflix to revisit them.
If you're looking for the tale of a kid growing up with a wonderful, wacky family (as the title would seem to imply), you're going to be disappointed. The parents Marshall describes were angry, bitter people, locked in a marriage that had gone far past loveless. One wonders why, even in the divorce-rare era of mid-Century America, they didn't simply move to end the conflict.
For whatever reason, Marshall and her brother Garry (creator of "Happy Days", director of "The Princess Diaries" and "Runaway Bride", among others) grew up to be major players in the entertainment industry of the 1970s and 80s. Her ramble down Memory Lane, via SNL and other hotspots, will amuse but not particularly engage the reader, and her inside stories of films like "Big", "A League of Their Own", and "Jumpin' Jack Flash" may send you off to Netflix to revisit them.
