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My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir
Résumé
At the age of twenty-six, Penny Marshall was a divorced mother of one living in the Bronx. One year later she starred in a Head & Shoulders commercial (she was the one with the dandruff) with Farah Fawcett. So began the unlikely career of one of Hollywood’s most accomplished directors. My Mother Was Nuts tells the story of Marshall’s incredible life, from her starring role on the classic sitcom Laverne and Shirley to her trailblazing moment as the first woman to direct a movie grossing more than $100 million at the box office. The book is a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood life, exploring her friendships with John Belushi, Lorne Michaels, Art Garfunkel, and Carrie Fisher, her marriage to and eventual divorce from Rob Reiner, and her experiences working with Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Geena Davis, Denzel Washington, and Drew Barrymore. This is a book about Hollywood, womanhood, and the power of Spanx.
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Avis
If Penny Marshall ever writes one more word I want to read it. I loved this book. She writes like she is sitting and talking to you in her living room. I only wish she had time and space to write down more stories of her life. What a wild ride she has had. Just the number of people she knows and the stories of all the things she has done is fascinating to me. But, even with all the big names and famous people in her life Penny is so down to earth and "normal" that you feel like if she met you she would invite you to lunch or let you stay at her house if you needed to.
Great stories and a fun and easy read. May Penny live another 68 years and write about them all again.
Great stories and a fun and easy read. May Penny live another 68 years and write about them all again.
Not surprisingly, this is a funny, irreverent book by Penny Marshall, mostly about her life. Not overly well written, and kind of stream of consciousness, but an easy enjoyable read.
HILARIOUS BOOK! Marshall wrote this book in a way that captivated my attention to the details of her life. There are so many interesting things that have happened to her that no one really knows about.
Eh. What should I have expected when Amazon says, "Hey, buy this book for $3.99." This book was a self-indulgent, name-dropping, drug-laced trip down memory lane. And none of it was that interesting. The sad attempts at humor were not humorous. It made my opinion of celebrities go down significantly, considering they are all narcissistic babies. Dang. Get over yourself. Bah.
I should stop reading showbiz memoirs. Invariably, I tend to find them boring and self-serving and the authors self-centered name-dropping control freaks. But probably that's the kind of person that makes it to the top of the showbiz career ladder (Joan Rivers, if you're reading this, you're the exception - I loved your latest book. But then you didn't exactly make it to the very pinnacle of showbiz, did you). In this case, I disliked Penny Marshall and her book even more than usual. Almost every sentence in this book serves either to exonerate her for mishaps to her costars or to indicate that she has been right all along, trying to make the reader believe that her career was a combination of nepotism (she'll admit to that) and sheer luck. I enjoyed the first chapters on growing up in the Bronx with a showbiz mom, but after that the narrative became too sloppy, with its baby boomer navel-gazing and focus on people that were allegedly big in the '70s but have since had little relevance (to me, at least). To avoid.
Quite good. She writes interestingly, but there were a few unexplained gaps too.
I listened to the audio version of this book which is read by the author.
I learned quite a bit I did not know about Penny Marshall: She was on the Jackie Gleason Show, she was in commercials, she really did not plan to be an actress let alone direct films.
Her brother Gary Marshall, which I did know she was related to Gary, is the one who opened the doors to get her career going. I loved her in Laverne and Shirley and have enjoyed the many films she has directed.
If you like Hollywood bios this is worth the read or a listen.
I learned quite a bit I did not know about Penny Marshall: She was on the Jackie Gleason Show, she was in commercials, she really did not plan to be an actress let alone direct films.
Her brother Gary Marshall, which I did know she was related to Gary, is the one who opened the doors to get her career going. I loved her in Laverne and Shirley and have enjoyed the many films she has directed.
If you like Hollywood bios this is worth the read or a listen.
Funny memoir of Penny Marshall that spans her childhood and acting and directing career. A light, enjoyable read.
Reader's accent was a turnoff. May try book at another time
Very enjoyable memoir. I enjoyed both the section on growing up in NY because that's where I grew up and also her discussion of her experiences in television and movie-making. I wasn't a fan of Laverne and Shirley but I liked her movies, especially A League of their Own.
Born in the Bronx to a mother who owned a dance studio, Penny Marshall has been in show business almost her entire life. Known best for her role as Laverne in Laverne and Shirley, she became a well-respected movie director, specializing in lighthearted and uplifting stories -- Jumpin' Jack Flash, Big, Awakenings, A League of Their Own, Renaissance Man, The Preacher's Wife, and Riding in Cars with Boys. She has not directed since 2001.This memoir is also lighthearted, mostly humorous and somewhat uplifting … if you don’t count drug use, promiscuous sex, and an overuse of the F-word. Ms. Marshall never goes into detail about those events in her life, but doesn’t try to hide them, either. Ms. Marshall is obviously NOT an introspective person and, therefore, the book is not as insightful as most memoirs. It's an easy read, and not too taxing, A friend at our non-fiction book group recommended this book. She said "it has its moments." A few.
Really enjoyed this book!!!
Pretty much without exception, I love the movies that Penny Marshall has directed. She helps create films with humor and heart – ones that I’ve watched again and again.When I saw she had written a memoir, I couldn’t resist getting it. I was hoping that it would either be wonderfully, sarcastically funny or give me insight into who this incredible woman is and how she found her way into acting and directing.Instead, “My Mother Was Nuts” is an interesting read, but I was disappointed. At time the book feels like a laundry list of names and places and events. The beginning, which of course focuses on her childhood – and of course, her mother, was the best part. As she describes herself as a child, the reader gets more depth. Before her life becomes so noteworthy, it is more relatable. She is funnier, too, as she looks back at the child she used to be.“I came home from school on day when I was fifteen, and my mother surprised me with the news that she and my father were getting a divorce. She said it matter-of-factly, as if it was on her list of things to tell me before dance class, and in fact, it was. She didn’t give me a chance to ask any questions. “Decide who you want to live with,” she said. “Him or me.” “Do I have to decide now?” I asked. “Yes,” she said. “And take out the garbage on your way out.”Despite, or perhaps because of the title of this story – Penny’s mother has an incredible influence on who she becomes and the life she pursues. Her dance classes were given by her mother. “I do know that I got way more out of my mother’s insufferable dance classes than I ever realized.” “Those classes I hated so much had given me a Plan B and a lifetime of confidence. But like most people, I needed to live most of my life before I could look back and understand how lucky I was to have been tortured.”Once she enters show business, the book loses much of its heart. As amazing as the people and events and places that are part of her life are – the way she describes them seems flat. We see what is happening around her, but we don’t get much of how Penny feels/felt. We learn what she did, but not really why or how. It was paragraphs like this that lost me as a reader.“I guess this was what I’d call my CEO period. I was friendly with Paul Allen, David Geffen, Barry Diller, and Ronald. All of them had private jets and yachts. It was nice. You just don’t meet many people who call you up and say, “Come with me to Germany tomorrow. We’ll go on the jet. I want to look at a yacht.” True, that would be nice. And amazing, and thrilling…as would directing “Big” and “Awakenings’ and giving birth to a daughter and getting married and divorced. And motorcycling around Europe with Art Garfunkel. And getting diagnosed with cancer. And being robbed by ninjas.There is so many amazing things that the reader is told about in this book. But the experience is like being shown a series of pictures, with little or no detail. Penny Marshall’s movies have such heart, they touch on such a wide range of genuine emotion…that I just wish the story of her amazing life did too.