0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
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.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Awards
-
Release date
December 11, 2007 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415951286
- File size: 618867 KB
- Duration: 21:29:18
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Icon and iconoclast Jane Fonda fearlessly explores the landscape of her memory in this semi-confessional autobiography. For listeners under 40 who have always wondered why so much attention is attached to this name, the book is a welcome introduction, not only to the actress, but to the overall tumult of American womanhood in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. Fonda's insistence on authenticity and conscious living shines through her performance. Her diction is invigorated by the raw honesty of emotion. Her training as an actor keeps the overall delivery measured, even when she reads aloud moments of trauma and loss. As with all of her projects, Fonda invests herself completely in this performance. R.F. 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine -
Starred review from June 6, 2005
Thanks to Fonda's bravura reading, this eloquent abridgement of her stirring 500-page autobiography is one of the best audiobooks of the season. Her tour de force performance ranges from hilarious (an imitation of Ted Turner trying to say "monogamous") to heartbreaking (her final days with her dying father). This probing and articulate memoir follows Fonda's quest for self-discovery: "To have a good third act you need to understand what the first two have been about. I don't want to die without knowing who I am." With unsparing honesty, she admits to 30 years of bulimia and anorexia, dissects three failed marriages and details her cathartic, four-hour meeting with Vietnam vets in 1988 as a "raw, angry, emotional... exorcism" of the myth of Hanoi Jane. With the exception of Barbarella
, Klute
and On Golden Pond
, the abridgment skims the two-time Oscar-winner's films in favor of her political awakening, budding feminism and emotional and spiritual growth. It's a fascinating, surprising journey, brought vividly to life by Fonda, who chuckles and ad-libs at will. On a side note: kudos to Random's inside packaging for including five photos from the book. Simultaneous release with Random hardcover (reviewed online at www.publishersweekly.com
). -
In her no-holds-barred self-exposé, Oscar-winning actress/political activist Jane Fonda explores the many lives and many voices of an "ever-evolving" woman with sometimes brutal honesty. There's the wistful, emotionally bereft, self-loathing childhood as the daughter of a distant, unapproachable movie star father and suicidal mother and the tremulous but unswerving years of study and self-awareness accumulated on the road to a celebrated acting career. Then there's the molding of a subservient woman by three domineering husbands, the steely determination of a political activist, and the final joyful "last act," in which she achieves a recognition of her true self and her "calling": guiding young women to empower themselves. Intriguing, instructive, inspirational personal exploration is enriched by a flawless, captivating author performance. It's her life in her voice--and she delivers. M.T.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
-