Author:
Narrator: Diane Keaton
Format: Unabridged-CD
Publisher: Random House Audio
Published: Nov 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography - Personal Memoirs
Retail Price: $35.00
"Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she'd collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK."
So begins Diane Keaton's unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. And so, in a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Throughout her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, about herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane's grandparents. Diane has sorted through all these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.
More than just the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.
From the Hardcover edition.
Diane Keaton has always been a favorite of mine, and I was looking forward to this memoir. I dont know if its less confusing to read than it is to hear on audiobook, but I dont always know whose thoughts Im hearingher mothers or hers. She switches from her own memories to her mothers journal pages quite frequently with no real distinction. Im more than half finished with the book and wonder if I can make it to the end. Im not really interested in her mothers life, but about half of the book, if not more, is devoted to that. I guess writing this was a catharsis for her.