In Pieces

This was a book club pick that I never would have picked up on my own. I knew virtually nothing about Sally Field going in. I've seen Mrs. Doubtfire and Forrest Gump, but none of the movies that she's more famous for. And having read it, I'm not that interested in seeking out more of her work.

Field weaves a theme of birth and rebirth through the memoir. She structures it on what she learned in her Lamaze classes when she was pregnant and makes a case that she has been constantly giving birth to new iterations of herself throughout her career. This tracks with the fact that she clearly subscribes to the method acting school of thought, without ever using those words.

But reading the book gave me the impression of a deeply passive woman who has a hard time with both accountability and control. Things keep happening to her. And no doubt a lot of awful things did happen to her. She suffered some serious traumas and never received help for them. Nor did she seek help. It seemed to be enough to point to these traumas to justify some of her more dubious behavior, as if they excused it all.

Ultimately I didn't like her as a person very much. Which is going to make it hard to enjoy any of her movies if I do ever want to watch them. This is probably why they warn you never to meet your heroes. Lucky for me, she was never that central to my life.

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