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A review by cocoonofbooks
Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame by Mara Wilson
5.0
I don't read a lot of celebrity memoirs, and haven't liked several of the ones I've read, so before I started reading this, I thought, "Wait, why did I borrow this book again? I loved Matilda, but I have no idea what Mara Wilson has done for the last 20 years or why I'd want to read about it."
It turns out that sometimes having a famous name but little celebrity gossip is the recipe for writing a fantastic, beautiful memoir that's just about life. I was surprised how much I loved this book, but I could relate to so many of her childhood stories, from her mental health issues as a kid to the drama of being in high school choir, from not understanding how to act like a normal human being around a guy you like to having solid evidence that you're not one of the "prettygirls" and having to find a way to move forward with that knowledge. I laughed out loud multiple times (the hardest at the part about choir directors and choreographers always messing up the lyrics to songs they've heard hundreds of times) and teared up at least three different times. I loved her open letter to the character of Matilda about her love/hate relationship with her, and it brought me joy to know that her experience on set was just as fantastic as my experience of watching the movie, that she really was friends with the girl who played Lavender and that Miss Honey was just as sweet in real life as you'd expect.
It's no surprise to me that Wilson has latched onto writing as her creative outlet since moving on from acting. She is a talented writer who can not only tell a story well but wrap it up into a succinct moral about life. And she's two years younger than me!
I'm so glad I took the chance of picking up this book based on nothing more than my love for Matilda. It rewarded me back many times over.
It turns out that sometimes having a famous name but little celebrity gossip is the recipe for writing a fantastic, beautiful memoir that's just about life. I was surprised how much I loved this book, but I could relate to so many of her childhood stories, from her mental health issues as a kid to the drama of being in high school choir, from not understanding how to act like a normal human being around a guy you like to having solid evidence that you're not one of the "prettygirls" and having to find a way to move forward with that knowledge. I laughed out loud multiple times (the hardest at the part about choir directors and choreographers always messing up the lyrics to songs they've heard hundreds of times) and teared up at least three different times. I loved her open letter to the character of Matilda about her love/hate relationship with her, and it brought me joy to know that her experience on set was just as fantastic as my experience of watching the movie, that she really was friends with the girl who played Lavender and that Miss Honey was just as sweet in real life as you'd expect.
It's no surprise to me that Wilson has latched onto writing as her creative outlet since moving on from acting. She is a talented writer who can not only tell a story well but wrap it up into a succinct moral about life. And she's two years younger than me!
I'm so glad I took the chance of picking up this book based on nothing more than my love for Matilda. It rewarded me back many times over.