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My Life So Far
Resumen
She is one of the most recognizable women of our time. America knows Jane Fonda as an actress and an activist, a feminist and a wife, a workout guru and a role model. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, Fonda reveals that she is so much more. From her youth among Hollywood's elite and her early film career to the challenges and triumphs of her life today, Jane Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths that she hopes "can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently."
Fonda divides her "life so far" into three "acts," writing about her childhood, first films, and marriage to Roger Vadim in Act One. At once a picture emerges: a child born to the acting legend Henry Fonda and the glamorous society princess Frances Seymour. But these early years are also marked by profound sadness: her mother's mental illness and suicide when Jane is twelve years old, her father's emotional distance, and her personal struggle to find her way in the world as a young woman.
By her second act, Fonda lays the foundation for her activism, even as her career takes flight. She highlights her struggle to live consciously and authentically while remaining in the public eye as she recounts her marriages to Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, and examines her controversial and defining involvement with the Vietnam War. As her film career grows, Fonda learns to incorporate her roles into a larger vision of what matters most in her life-and in the process she wins two Academy Awards, for Klute and for Coming Home.
In Fonda's third act, she is prepared to do the work of a lifetime-to begin living consciously in a way that might inspire others who can learn from her experiences. Surprising, candid, and wonderfully written, Jane Fonda's My Life So Far is filled with universal insights into the personal struggles of women living full and engaged lives.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Reseñas
Excellent, informative read but really LONG.
What I thought about Jane Fonda prior to reading this memoir: "She's been in some movies I've enjoyed. Isn't she married to that CNN guy?" What I think about Jane Fonda after reading this memoir: "OMG, I love Jane Fonda SO MUCH! She's my new imaginary best friend/mentor/godmother."The hundreds of memoirs I've read over the years have led me to develop certain criteria about what constitutes a great memoir. First, the memoirist must have led an interesting life. Of course, this describes most memoirists. I mean, why would a publisher bother with a memoir of a person who has done nothing interesting? But, as I have so woefully discovered, just because a person has led what appears to be a fascinating life, this in no way guarantees that the memoir they write will be fascinating. (See Grace Coddington's memoir for a perfect example of this). Jane fills this first requirement in spades. Stars in a number of classic movies - check. Famous father - check. Famous husbands - check. Participates in newsworthy events - check. Secondly, the memoirist must have developed self-awareness and the ability to dissect their past actions and feelings. Oh, it's quite easy to write a "I did this and then I did that and then I did this again" sort of memoir. All you need to do is look at your past calendars. Or just google yourself if you are famous. The point of a memoir is to discover the thoughts and feelings behind the actions. Again, Jane excels at this. I must compliment her therapists. Good job! Jane is able to not only delve deeply into her motivations and beliefs, she is able take those feelings and relate them to certain universal feelings all people have.Jane also walks the fine line between revealing too much and too little. OK, personally, I rarely find anything to be too revealing, but that's just me. I enjoy gossipy luridness. Jane manages to write about really private events in her life - all those threesomes with Vadim, her affairs, her sexual fears, without getting too personal. She doesn't name the men she has affairs with, but she doesn't need to. Instead she focuses on WHY she had the affairs, what was going on in her heart and mind at the time, what the repercussions were and how she feels about the events now. The name of the guy is irrelevant. Same with the threesomes - when I have read men writing about threesomes - ok, rock stars and actors, but still - when the men write about them, it's almost like you are reading a Penthouse Forum letter. One gets the lurid details but not the emotions behind the actions. And the emotions are the truly interesting bits. OK, great, this groupie gave you a blowjob in a limo. But what about your wife back home? What about the loneliness of being on the road? What about your inability to connect with non-famous people once you become famous? What is the backstory of the blowjob??? That is a far more difficult thing to write than just writing what happened. Jane excels at the backstory. At the deeper meaning.The parts of the book dealing with her relationship with her dad totally made me cry. I read Henry Fonda's biography several years ago and was sad afterwards. I'd always loved him as an actor and it was depressing to read about what a cold, repressed man he was in real life. It affected how I viewed him in movies. I was curious to find out Jane's take on him. Would she be bitter and angry like Christina Crawford or Gary Crosby? Jane did a marvelous job revealing all the different facets to their father/daughter relationship. She also did a great job relating her specific experience with what many people who have cold, unemotional parents go through. The whole bit about making On Golden Pond - wow. I'm so glad she got to make that movie and come to a certain peace about their relationship. Also, that chapter made me love Katherine Hepburn more than I already did.I think this memoir is worth reading. You don't have to be a fan. Hell, I think people who hate her for her 1960's activism should read this. Jane does a great job discussing that period. (All those FBI files on her are so interesting!) She writes about universal emotions and feelings and thoughts that anyone who has a modicum of self-awareness would relate to. Two thumbs up. Way up.
A well written and interesting tale that became tedious at times because of the author's tendency to ramble. At 584 pages it was far too long. With some slick editing this would have been an excellent read as the content especially around the Vietnam conflict time was most interesting.
Of course, Jane Fonda apart from being a fantastic actress in her own right, is mainly known as the daughter of the late Henry Fonda, sister of Peter Fonda and aunt of Bridget Fonda. She is also known for speaking out in the 60's during the Vietnam war and has been a voice for many issues over the years. Her autobiography is pretty well packed. A very intelligent woman and quite a force, she tells of her childhood and the effect her parents marriage had on her. She is also quite candid about the choices she made through life whether good or bad. Her mother Frances committed suicide when Jane was 10 years old, after being asked for a divorce by Henry. Jane's relationship with her parents wasn't particularly close and this had a profound effect on Jane later in life. Although very fond of her father and trying to do everything she could to please him, in her marriages she felt that she needed to do right by her husbands at the time for fear of losing them. However, she has her father's work ethos and in both her acting and campaigning careers, into which she certainly threw her heart and sole. A wonderful autobiography which I think many of us will be able to relate to at least one or two of the issues she raised in the book. It makes you think about your own life, abilities and ghosts that one carries from the past. It makes you look at things differently and realise that life isn't easy for everyone, even the rich and successful. Everyone has their flaws in life.
Fonda opened up about her childhood, first loves and marriage, and her activism in the anti-war campaign during Vietnam. However, that's where she ended her story, but that really wasn't her life so far even at the time of publishing. Left me wondering where the rest of her life went and wanting to know about it. Fonda is straight forward and a decent writer.
A well written and interesting tale that became tedious at times because of the author's tendency to ramble. At 584 pages it was far too long. With some slick editing this would have been an excellent read as the content especially around the Vietnam conflict time was most interesting.
Finished May 5, 2005The Lord knows His own. More properly, I suppose, He knows everyone, but I mean by my opening that He uses that which is part of our personal being to reach us -- His methods individualized for each one of us.On several imporant occasions in my life He has conveyed His mesasge to me via books -- books which I had no intention of reading, books which I assumed beforehand would be either stupid or fluffy, or both.That is the case with this one. I idly read the book jacket flaps while waiting at Borders to have coffee with a friend. It interested me enough to get a copy out of the library. Then i saw Jane on The Actors' Studio and was blown away by her honesty, and her experience of life as a repressed woman.Her wounding childhood and the weakness to which many women are prone, that of non-self-confidence, produced a person who continuously shut down her own self and her true voice in order to get or to retain love and approvalI was stunned to find this to be true of a woman I had peceived to be strong, outpsoken, talented, rich and beautiful. And, most important to me, she began to look for and to choose her own voice when she was 60.So, while not great literature, this book is an honest, moving, encouraging, and enlightening account of struggle and search. I liked it well enough to buy two copies, one for me and one for my daughter.I have also been struck by the great quotations Jane uses,and have purchased several of the authors she recommends.Happily surprised, I have both enjoyed and benefited from a book which I initially perceived as the autobiography of a movie star, something in which normally I would have no interest at all.
Although, I am not a huge fan of Jane Fonda's I find her book very interesting and engaging. I ordered the book out of curiosity and am glad I did. Her childhood does explain (but not excuse by any means) her actions and attitudes as an adult.
Not an elegant, literary writer but a forceful, honest one. Some readers may not take to the digested self-analysis served up by Ms Fonda but I took it in the same vein that I think it was given - the desire to be honest about her life and the meaning she has made of it.Made me want to go and watch all her films.
Smart, deep, compassionate, empathetic, articulate, wise, balanced. I loved it.