In the past few weeks, I've read four biographies. I don't read biographies often but they caught my eye as I was scrolling through Central Arkansas Library's online offerings. Boy, what a mixed, and rather disappointing, bag!
The first was Page Boy by Elliott Page, the transgender actor. I enjoyed his work in the movies Juno and Whip It. I was looking forward to reading some Hollywood gossip and learning more about him. Sadly, about halfway through, I found myself skimming page after page, hoping an end was in sight. I became emotionally exhausted simply reading about his extreme lack of self-confidence and self-awareness. I can't imagine how much more exhausting he would be in person. If you have to repeatedly ask people around you the same question, over and over, for YEARS, then you should probably find a new therapist.
Next up was Spare by Prince Harry. I really wanted to have some sympathy for Harry and Meghan, since it was pretty clear she had been unfairly hounded by the British press and treated with extraordinary disdain and unconcealed racism by members of the royal family. Plus there was that bit about his mother dying so tragically young, apparently also hounded by the press. But in recounting episode after episode of his childhood and youth, it became clear that Harry was writing from a place of incredible privilege and wealth while remaining utterly tone-deaf to that privilege. Jetting off to Africa whenever you get your feelings hurt is not an experience most of us will ever have. By the end, my sympathy had drained away.
I followed those two disappointments with I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I am too old to have seen any of her television work but I'd heard reviews of the book and decided to check it out. Spoiler and trigger alert: child sexual abuse, mental abuse, mental illness, eating disorders, substance abuse. Wow. This book was a difficult read. McCurdy is to be commended for coming out the other side sounding like a reasonably put-together adult. Not a book for all readers, but a well-written and interesting story.
To round out the list, I just finished The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway by Una McCormack. I am a Star Trek fan from way back and this book promised some light entertainment. Janeway was the captain of the Voyager, a starship that was sent 70,000 light years from Earth by a morally conflicted interaction between Janeway and her crew, a threatened species of humanoids, and a dying alien trying to protect them. The multi-year TV series chronicling their journey home was a very successful addition to the Star Trek pantheon. This book was just as fluffy and entertaining as I had hoped. McCormack is a rather prolific fan-fiction industry unto herself, writing for the Doctor Who, Firefly, and Star Trek universes.
Ironically, the book I enjoyed most of the four was about a fictional character!
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