Helpful Score: 2
She has quite the career and still going, lots of interesting facts--loved every page.
Didn't care for the back and forth within a story, she didn't say much about her time on Facts of Life, which I wanted to read since I loved the show in the 80's (as a kiddo). Yet, she kept saying, I will get to that a little later and I hate that. Finish it all in complete sentence. I enjoyed it but was still confused, if she was with her ex husband now, or they were just close friends. I like this old broad and still watch her on Raising Hope on Friday nights. Hope she keeps coming up with funny stuff!
Despite the fact that Cloris seemed to be completely nonlinear in the telling of her life-story, so that you jumped around from time to place "Oh, I'm seven"/"Oh, my granddaughter is seven", it wasn't hard to follow. She "spoke" in a conversational style, rather like your grandmother remembering stories, and then one memory giving tangent to another...
George Englund, who co-authored the book with her, was not just her ex-husband, but the true love of her life, and she of his. Despite separations and eventual divorce, they remained best friends, like Lucy and Desi, which is wonderful, especially since they had five lovely children together, Adam, Bryan, Georgie Jr., Morgan and Dinah. Though, the two things that seemed to have pulled them apart, she mentions, were different and incompatible parenting styles and his close, brotherly kinship with Marlon Brando, a relationship which he seemed to put high above his own marriage, and Marlon his. (No, it wasn't anything BUT brotherly, though, Marlon told him shortly before dying, "George, I love you, man-- if you had a ****, I would've married you years ago!")
The saddest part of the book was not when she mentioned about her son, Bryan, dying-- but the time she had to spend away from her first three when they were little, following a miscarriage. When the small boys asked, "Where's Mama? Who's that?" when she came to the room, I was so choked up... But, clearly, they didn't get separated like that again, and she was able to regain a close relationship with them, and now she and George Sr. not only have several children, but grandchildren and one great grandson.
Her take on life is funny and soft, and a little bawdy at times, and I'm glad I read, and completely enjoyed.
George Englund, who co-authored the book with her, was not just her ex-husband, but the true love of her life, and she of his. Despite separations and eventual divorce, they remained best friends, like Lucy and Desi, which is wonderful, especially since they had five lovely children together, Adam, Bryan, Georgie Jr., Morgan and Dinah. Though, the two things that seemed to have pulled them apart, she mentions, were different and incompatible parenting styles and his close, brotherly kinship with Marlon Brando, a relationship which he seemed to put high above his own marriage, and Marlon his. (No, it wasn't anything BUT brotherly, though, Marlon told him shortly before dying, "George, I love you, man-- if you had a ****, I would've married you years ago!")
The saddest part of the book was not when she mentioned about her son, Bryan, dying-- but the time she had to spend away from her first three when they were little, following a miscarriage. When the small boys asked, "Where's Mama? Who's that?" when she came to the room, I was so choked up... But, clearly, they didn't get separated like that again, and she was able to regain a close relationship with them, and now she and George Sr. not only have several children, but grandchildren and one great grandson.
Her take on life is funny and soft, and a little bawdy at times, and I'm glad I read, and completely enjoyed.
I love a good biography of a star. Cloris is a great actress, but I think she could have used a little more help writing her book. She jumps all over the place, dropping names and changing times in her life. Not one of my favorite reads. (worth the price at the dollar store, though)
