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A review by mishale1
Making a Scene by Constance Wu
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
I’ll admit to being someone who enjoyed Fresh off the Boat and was completely dumbfounded when Constance Wu tweeted that she was disappointed that it had been renewed (paraphrasing). I thought at the time, she’s got a good tv show and only one successful movie why does she want to leave? Why isn’t she grateful to the show that brought her all this success and recognition? And then more of the story came out: she’d been harassed at work for years, she genuinely thought the show had been canceled and had been given the unofficial okay to pursue movies, and she felt so badly after the public backlash to her post that she tried to kill herself.
And then I felt like a real heal for judging someone when I had absolutely no knowledge about what she was going through. The more I heard about her book, the more that I wanted to read it and actually get to know this person through her own words.
Making a Scene is really a perfect title for this book because it refers not just to her career as an actress but also to how hard Constance tried to be non-confrontational. She tried to just make jokes and go along with some truly uncomfortable and bad situations because she “didn’t want to make a scene” and she worried that she’d make things worse if she actually did confront someone.
She doesn’t claim to be perfect. She talks about her regrets about not being kind enough to her younger sister and issues with her mom and others.
When I started reading the book and she was pouring her heart out about her first love, it became obvious that she was going to give a lot of details about her life. She never wrote in such a way that it was only making her sound good. You could really feel her pain at times, especially during wine bad breakups.
She talks about her one eyed bunny. Her first car. Her first job at a bakery (this made he want cinnamon rolls badly). And she talked about her time on Fresh off the Boat.
My only surprise in reading this book is that she didn’t talk about her current relationship or much about her daughter. I have the feeling she was trying to keep that part of her life just to herself.
I enjoyed this book and I’d definitely recommend it. It was a very quick read too.
And then I felt like a real heal for judging someone when I had absolutely no knowledge about what she was going through. The more I heard about her book, the more that I wanted to read it and actually get to know this person through her own words.
Making a Scene is really a perfect title for this book because it refers not just to her career as an actress but also to how hard Constance tried to be non-confrontational. She tried to just make jokes and go along with some truly uncomfortable and bad situations because she “didn’t want to make a scene” and she worried that she’d make things worse if she actually did confront someone.
She doesn’t claim to be perfect. She talks about her regrets about not being kind enough to her younger sister and issues with her mom and others.
When I started reading the book and she was pouring her heart out about her first love, it became obvious that she was going to give a lot of details about her life. She never wrote in such a way that it was only making her sound good. You could really feel her pain at times, especially during wine bad breakups.
She talks about her one eyed bunny. Her first car. Her first job at a bakery (this made he want cinnamon rolls badly). And she talked about her time on Fresh off the Boat.
My only surprise in reading this book is that she didn’t talk about her current relationship or much about her daughter. I have the feeling she was trying to keep that part of her life just to herself.
I enjoyed this book and I’d definitely recommend it. It was a very quick read too.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape