A review by aschwartau
In Pieces by Sally Field

4.0

Excellent example of a celebrity memoir. Though I might classify this more as an autobiography written in a memoirish voice (typically, a memoir centers around a specific theme or time period, and this book covered pretty much her entire life).

Her writing was gorgeous! I was not expecting to be so swept up in her language. I listened to the audio book and her narration was pitch perfect as well. She is such a smart, thoughtful woman. Even when she was speaking about people who did her gross injustices or abused her in a number of ways, she wrote with grace and through the lens of being older and wiser.

Some of the stories she shares are hard to hear -- being sexually abused throughout her childhood, the rampant sexism and misogyny she dealt with in Hollywood, the years her mother spent drunk and seemingly unaware of what was going on, the unequal (and emotionally abusive) relationship she had with Burt Reynolds -- but the way she tells them, with years of emotional reflection and time to process the events, makes it easier for the reader. She's not emotionally distant at all, in fact she gets up close and personal with how she felt then and how she feels now. But she does so gently, with compassion for her younger self and the mistakes she made along the way.

I really enjoyed this book. It might be in my top 5 celeb memoirs.