Actress
Jane Fonda
Notes from Evan Smith
"The problem with the celebrity memoir is typically the celebrity part and the memoir part. Too many people think they're famous, or that we care--which is why the vast majority of these massive books gather dust and end up in the discount bin of your local bookstore before the ink is dry. And too many of their precious anecdotes or tales told out of school are much less interesting than they realize--and often make them look petty, egomaniacal, boring, or all of the above. Which is why I'm happy to say, without reservation, that Jane Fonda's most recent book, My Life So Far, is the rare example of the form worth perusing--even if the lazy title practically invites you to pass it by. The 68-year-old actress, activist, and aerobocist--yes, she's that old, and no, I can't believe it either--has crammed so much about the many facets of her life between two covers that the "so far" is accurate--she probably has at least one more book in her. And all the stuff you want to read about it is in there, unsanitized in as much as anything ever is: her upbringing in a family of Hollywood Brahmins, and, specifically, what it was like to be Henry Fonda's daughter; her long acting career, her seven Oscar nominations and two wins, and her decision in 1990 to more or less retire from the business; her political awakening and her vehement opposition to Vietnam--and how, forty years later, the woman still derided as Hanoi Jane sees the Iraq situation playing out; and, for you tabloid aficionados, her relationships with three husbands, most recently the iconoclastic cable-tv tycoon Ted Turner. Fonda herself is iconclastic as well, refusing to confirm to anyone's expectations. Exhibit A: Her late-in-life embrace of Christianity. Exhibits B through Z: Stay tuned." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 5.11.06
