Jan 10, 2012

Book Review: Finding My Balance, a Memoir by Mariel Hemingway


Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

"It seems to me that before I discovered meditation I traveled from one want to the next, seeking comfort and joy in winning acting roles and the love of my peers, or even things as trivial as a silk carpet or the perfect physique.... " (ch . 12)

Title: Finding My Balance: A Memoir by Mariel Hemingway
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 30, 2003)
Source: library

Comments: Mariel Hemingway, granddaughter of the writer Ernest Hemingway, writes the memoir of life as a member of the famous family and describes how she navigates through the minefield of her life, eventually "Finding My Balance." She uses yoga as a help to reach that goal. Her memoir alone is interesting, but adding yoga to the mix makes the book both useful and informative. At the end of the memoir are detailed instructions for basic yoga moves, with pictures and instructions.

Publisher's description: "Actress Mariel Hemingway uses the lessons and practices of yoga as a starting point for her own personal reflections and a larger-than-life family story. The result is a searingly honest memoir that is firmly practical, as well as a moving narrative of the author's struggle to deal with a complex and often stressful life.

Mariel was the third daughter born to Jack Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's son, and Byra Whittlesey. Her older sister, Muffet, suffered for years from instability, while middle sister Margaux, a celebrated actress and model, eventually died of the effects of her driven lifestyle. Their mother, Byra, was darkly moody and emotionally quixotic, and made no secret of her disdain for her husband, while Jack, himself insecure in no small part because of his celebrated father, a man he never really felt he knew, was an indifferent parent at best.

Even before she was a teenager, Mariel was forced to assume the role of stable center of her family. In just about every way, she never really had a childhood of her own, a situation that was exacerbated by her sudden thrust into celebrity when she was first cast in sister Margaux's film "Lipstick," then in Woody Allen's "Manhattan." Suddenly, Mariel was a movie star."

© Harvee Lau of Book Dilettante. Please do not reprint without permission

7 comments:

  1. I think this would be an interesting read, and I love the fact that it introduces Yoga into the mix as well. I know firsthand how Yoga can heal and calm all sorts of things in your life, and would be really thrilled to read it. So glad that you liked it too, and great review!

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  2. I met her at Book Expo America in 2008 (in LA), and have a nutritional cookbook she wrote.

    She seems so much calmer these days than back when she was a young actor.

    The balance must be working!

    Here's MY TT POST and
    MY WEBSITE

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  3. I bet this is an interesting read.

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  4. Thanks for posting this teaser, introducing me to a book I knew nothing about. With the yoga connection it sounds like this is more than just a celebrity's autobiography.
    Here's my teaser:
    Sandy & Sandra’s Blog

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  5. Sounds like a memoir I would enjoy. I just started becoming interested in yoga, too, so I like that aspect.

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  6. Since I don't know anything about Yoga, I would like to read M. Hemingway's memoir as it relates to the meditation.

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