In Pieces by Sally Field

I read this only because it was a book club pick. I do enjoy almost all memoirs; and this did have a good narrative arc, watching Field’s acting career progress in “seriousness”. But I never would have picked this book on my own, mainly because, I really just don’t care about actors. I don’t find acting interesting as an art, and I don’t find actors intrinsically interesting as people. And I had a hard time nailing down who exactly Sally Field was. Funny true story – when we were considering doing this book, someone in book club said that Sally Field was “so good in ‘All in the Family.'” After some puzzlement, we all protested, “That was Sally Struthers!” Then someone added, “Yes, Sally Field was Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Then we all protested, “No, that was Sissy Spacek!” And I’m really embarrassed that I went home chuckling at this, and then read the book the whole time waiting for her to get to her big break playing Major Houlihan in the movie version of M*A*S*H. That, of course was, Sally Kellerman!

But seriously, I think I’ve at least got straight now who Sally Field is and was. She was Gidget, then the Flying Nun. She enjoyed being Gidget but hated every moment of the Flying Nun, and longed to be seen as a serious actor. The book climaxes effectively with her winning the Academy Award for ‘Norma Rae’.

Of course, there’s abuse along the way. Field’s childhood was dominated by sexual abuse by her slimy stepfather while her drunk mother looked the other way. I’m glad she seems to have achieved some degree of closure on those issues by book’s end. ( )

Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House by Meghan Daum

I continue to love Meghan. This is Daum #3 for me, and while I feel it’s a bit weaker, and definitely less weighty, than THE UNSPEAKABLE or THE PROBLEM WITH EVERYTHING, it’s still worthwhile. One part about her boyfriend’s attachment to a couch that is too big for her house which he’s about to move into was so funny I read it out loud to my husband. He cracked up, and said that if you just threw in a few references to European philosophers, it could have been Woody Allen. I hope she’d take that as a compliment.

I feel I share Meghan’s real estate fetish, although she’s taken it to lengths I would never have dared. The sentence in the book that gave me that “Meghan has hijacked my brain again” feeling was:

“[W]ith a few exceptions, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never visited a place without imagining myself permanently or at least semipermanently installed there.”

I never knew if this was something that everyone feels to some extent, or if it was just me. Maybe it’s just me & Meghan.

I KNOW I share her fixation on “Little House” and all things farmy and prairie. I rage with jealousy that she actually did move to a farm in Nebraska for a period of time. Just hearing her mention the words “Lincoln, Nebraska” fills me with longing. I think only she would understand. ( )

Janis by Holly George-Warren

I love Janis Joplin and love being immersed in her story. I can’t say I really learned anything in this bio that I hadn’t from the several others that I have read. This one leaned heavily on Janis’ copious written correspondence with her family; and seemed less focused on her relationships with men, and more on those she had with women. Janis here is presented as frankly bisexual, if not lesbian with a daddy fixation.

I took issue when lyrics were misquoted. The most egregious example was the part in “Piece of My Heart” where Janis sings, “Nowma nowma nowma nowma nowma HEAR me when I cry-y-y-y, and baby I cry all the time!” This was transcribed on paper as “Never, never, never hear me when I cry.” I can only think that when another artist wrote or transcribed the song, the word was “Never.” If so, tell us what you’re quoting. Because you’re not quoting Janis. On no planet does “Nowma” mean “Never.” (It means, obviously, “Nowma”.)

My thoughts on the medical nature of addiction have evolved since I last immersed myself in Janis’ life story. With so much attention to the opiate crisis, so many obituaries of young people in my local paper, and a harrowing recent book club meeting covering DOPESICK by Beth Macy accompanied by a gut-wrenching story of the addiction-related death of the son of one of the members of my own book club, I now more than ever consider addiction to be a brain-altering medical condition.

And this makes me ponder in a new light the narrative of Janis Joplin. How would it be different if she had lived? Luck played a huge part in who among her cohort lived and who died in the 60s. What if she had lived, cleaned up, moved on; would we still dwell so much on the “tortured soul” angle of her early years?

She indisputably had a lot of difficulties in her background. She tried to kick heroin multiple times, sometimes seeming to come oh-so-close, only to relapse – how it always goes. In the past, I would think, “What tortured her soul so much that she had to keep going back to it?” Now I simply think, “She was an addict. The addiction kept her coming back.”

What is it about Janis? Right in the introduction, George-Warren nails it: “Janis was a walking live nerve capable of surfacing feelings that most people couldn’t or wouldn’t.” When I’m asked what it is about Janis that so enthralls me, the only phrase I can come up with it “out there,” accompanied by expanded arms. “She was so out there.” It was all out there. Being “14 with no tits,” as she put it. The acne, the high school hall put-downs that didn’t seem to end with high school. She puts it all out there in a way I can’t or won’t. Janis is my live nerve. ( )