Sissy Spacek

???1/2 rounded up to 4 (memoirs/autobios are not my thing, so I’m reading out of my box) ?


From a small town in Texas to Hollywood fame to her current life in between Virginia and the movies, this is the life of Sissy Spacek. She grew up as a tap dancing, baton twirling tomboy following her older brothers around in the days when children grew up more free range. She pursued music, convinced she had no acting talent because she never landed a role in a school play, but, as most of us know, she finally ended up as an A list actor for many years. And whatever else you say about Sissy Spacek, she is one of the most brilliant actors of the latter half of the twentieth century, and she was wise enough to get a professional author to write this with her.

I was prepared to like this given her one time connection and kindness to my brother, and some of it I loved, but some of it I only liked, and some got rather repetitive. I was happy to learn about her experiences making a few movies that had a powerful impact on me many years ago, and to learn how she got there and kept herself grounded and out of living and believing the Hollywood hype all the time. In some places, though, she’d lost off a number of names I have never heard of that I didn’t necessarily need to know, and I’d have liked to hear a bit more about her children growing up and a bit less about all of her pets. I also thought that even though she did mention some of the tragedies their family experience, she idealized her childhood quite a bit.

I don’t know if I’d have liked this as much had I read it rather than listened to it.
… (more)