Where Am I Now?
Ratings17
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings17
Average rating3.6
Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as the only child on a film set full of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member of the cheerleading squad, a valley girl in New York and a neurotic in California, and one of the few former child actors who has never been in jail or rehab. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of Melrose Place, to losing her mother at a young age, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?) on a celebrity canoe trip, to not being “cute” enough to make it in Hollywood, these essays tell the story of one young woman’s journey from accidental fame to relative (but happy) obscurity. But they also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring out who you are and where you belong. Exquisitely crafted, revelatory, and full of the crack comic timing that has made Mara Wilson a sought-after live storyteller and Twitter star, Where Am I Now? introduces a witty, perceptive, and refreshingly candid new literary voice.
Reviews with the most likes.
Actual rating is 3.5 stars.
Where Am I Now? felt more like a series of autobiographic essays than a memoir per se. I like Mara Wilson, I follow her on Twitter and all, and thus I was super excited to read about her life—we tend to do that, don't we? We always want to know more about a stranger's life. Where Am I Now? was, in this aspect, more or less exactly what I expected. In this book, she tells us about her career, her family, her OCD, Robin Williams. I feel closer to Mara now, in a way, and I still like her very much, now both as an actress/pseudo-famous person and as a writer.
I was disappointed, though, that she did not mention her bisexuality, not even once, focusing instead on some of her heterosexual relationships. She evens calls herself a straight woman in some instances—which, of course, is what she believed she was at the time, but it felt weird all the same.
I really enjoy Mara Wilson on Twitter and some of the blog posts/Moth stories/etc that I've seen on the internet, so I was interested in checking out her book. I actually didn't really grow up watching her movies etc, so for me, my desire to read this wasn't so much about like “I definitely want the backstory of how Miracle on 34th Street got made” as just like, “I think Mara Wilson is funny.” And I would say anyone really wanting to dig into 90s Hollywood gossip would probably be disappointed, this is much more about Mara's personal/family life including coping with mental illness and just like patriarchal bullshit. Which I'm into. (I mean, there are a few fun stories about making Matilda etc, it's just not the main focus.)
