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A Slice of Life
by Francine Brokaw
Here’s the Story by Maureen McCormick and Lessons in Becoming Myself by Ellen Burstyn
Here’s the Story is Maureen McCormick’s intense study of her life. She is most remembered for her role as Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch, something she had a difficult time coping with for a while. She didn’t want to be known simply as “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.”
McCormick’s story is filled with trials and tribulations. If you’re a big Brady Bunch fan, prepare to have your bubble burst. Maureen was nothing like Marcia.
Throughout the book, the actress describes her addiction to drugs and her destructive behavior without sugar coating anything. She also delves deeply into her family life and the fact that her mother had syphilis and she was terribly afraid she would suffer the same fate.
If you’re looking for juicy gossip about The Brady Bunch actors, this is not the book for you. This is a deeply intense study of one woman’s struggle to deal with her life, family, and career while suffering deep pain and anguish. It’s not an easy read and sometimes becomes a bit droning, as McCormick lays out one hurdle after another over which she had to jump. But she survived and is happy to tell everyone what she had to go through to be the woman she is today.
If you’re looking for a more interesting but just as intense Hollywood autobiography, I recommend Ellen Burstyn’s book, Lessons in Becoming Myself. Granted, this woman has lived many more years than Maureen McCormick, but she has also had many more incredible experiences. Her story is also filled with tragic family circumstances.
Burstyn was beaten as a child and left home on her eighteenth birthday to escape the cruelties she was suffering. She tells readers how she survived and became an actress. Her many stories about her Broadway and Hollywood experiences are amazing.
She also had to deal with an ex-husband who stalked her and caused immense pain to both her and her son. When reading this book, it was like a Shakespeare tragedy. But knowing that it really happened to this woman made it more heartrending.
This Oscar winning actress has a long resume which spans over 50 years in television and films. Her often-heartbreaking personal life will amaze readers as she divulges that her father wanted to rape her and on his deathbed his regret was that he never was intimate with her! Talk about drama.
Several years ago I was dining in a restaurant in Malibu and Burstyn was in the booth behind me. I overheard her talking to her companion about writing her autobiography and how difficult it was because it brought back many painful memories. Both of these books were very cathartic experiences for these two very different actresses. However they have one thing in common. They both reveal very personal and deeply emotional experiences and give readers an insight into how they each became the women they are now.
Through struggle and pain, Maureen McCormick and Ellen Burstyn emerged as strong, successful women and actresses. Their respective autobiographies are personal and moving.
© 2008 Francine Brokaw
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