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nectarinereadss 's review for:
Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame
by Mara Wilson
In the spring of this year, I attended the concert for my favorite artist, Mitski. During the concert, someone shouted from the crowd, "You speak to my experience". Mitski, a singer who always was grounded in her boundaries with fans, replied in her usual no-nonsense manner. She said (and I paraphrase badly) that she wasn't speaking to anyone's experience but her own and we just related to that because we were all normal human beings. She said that she used to think she was so weird and no one would ever be able to understand her thoughts or emotions until she produced music and realized that people do understand her because this is the sort of stuff that many people experience. None of us have emotions that are beyond understanding, compassion or empathy. None of us are anything but normal human beings, despite what we have undergone or what diagnoses we carry (this is me extrapolating, she didn't say this in her brief interlude).
This was my experience reading many essays in this book. The one on childhood existential crises particularly resonated with me as I had thought I was a freak for my inability to handle death since I was quite young. Though we ended up with different conclusions (I switched religions after a brief time dabbling in secularism whilst she became an atheist), I felt a kinship with her (cheesy, I know). It was really comforting to realize that even though my friends at that age didn't really talk about it, most kids were terrified of death/the afterlife. Everyone has those weird moments when they realize the absurdity of existence or the impossibility of forever. I wasn't batshit crazy... nice.
This is a humanizing and intimate portrayal that I greatly enjoyed. Wilson has taken the power away from the voyeuristic journalists, the ones who write "where are they now" articles, and returned it to herself. While doing this, she has crafted rich and nuanced narratives that ground her both in and out the celebrity domain. *cue witty closing line about the faceless old woman who lives in your house having many faces (facets?)*
This was my experience reading many essays in this book. The one on childhood existential crises particularly resonated with me as I had thought I was a freak for my inability to handle death since I was quite young. Though we ended up with different conclusions (I switched religions after a brief time dabbling in secularism whilst she became an atheist), I felt a kinship with her (cheesy, I know). It was really comforting to realize that even though my friends at that age didn't really talk about it, most kids were terrified of death/the afterlife. Everyone has those weird moments when they realize the absurdity of existence or the impossibility of forever. I wasn't batshit crazy... nice.
This is a humanizing and intimate portrayal that I greatly enjoyed. Wilson has taken the power away from the voyeuristic journalists, the ones who write "where are they now" articles, and returned it to herself. While doing this, she has crafted rich and nuanced narratives that ground her both in and out the celebrity domain. *cue witty closing line about the faceless old woman who lives in your house having many faces (facets?)*