In Pieces
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4.4 • 133 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A Sunday Times Book of the Year
‘A memoir as soulful, wryly witty, and lyrical as it is candid and courageous’ – Booklist, starred review
‘Impressive, candid and vivid’ The Times
‘Beautifully written’ Sunday Times
Sally Field is one of the most celebrated, beloved and enduring actors of our time, and now she tells her story for the first time in this intimate and haunting literary memoir. In her own words, she writes about a challenging and lonely childhood, the craft that helped her find her voice, and a powerful emotional legacy that shaped her journey as a daughter and a mother.
Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated audiences for more than five decades, beginning with her first television role at the age of 17. From Gidget’s sweet-faced ‘girl next door’ to the dazzling complexity of Sybil to the Academy Award-winning ferocity and depth of her role in Norma Rae and Mary Todd Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity. Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within.
With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind the scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships including, most importantly, her complicated love for her own mother.
Powerful and unforgettable, In Pieces is an inspiring and important account of life as a woman in the second half of the twentieth century.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Published in the tumultuous #MeToo era, Sally Field’s memoir is an unexpectedly frank and vulnerable self-portrait of an ambitious woman in a patriarchal world. Starting with her first acting experience in middle school and continuing to her late-career gem Hello, My Name Is Doris, the previously private actress leaves no secret unearthed, revealing the sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her stepfather and the various acts of unkindness she confronted throughout her career. A powerful and necessary read,In Pieces shows how Field’s trademark wide-eyed optimism was braced by a steely fortitude.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Actress Field's candid memoir exposes her constant loneliness and lifelong struggle to understand herself and her relationships with others. Field writes about her early family life growing up around Los Angeles, which included being sexually abused by her stepfather beginning at age 12, and maintaining an uneasy relationship with her alcoholic mother. She tells of her early acting career and her popular sitcom roles in Gidget and The Flying Nun when she was 17 and 20 respectively, and reveals that she hated the script for The Flying Nun and initially refused the part. Her stepfather bullied her into taking the role, which she disliked throughout its three-year run. At 22 in 1968, Field married her high school boyfriend. The marriage ended six years later, and it was then that Field met Burt Reynolds while filming Smokey and the Bandit. The three-year romantic relationship with Reynolds was unhealthy from the beginning: "Gently, Burt began to housebreak me, teaching me what was allowed and what was not." Field's stories about the earlier years of her career entertain, but the descriptions of her more recent projects feels rushed, as she barely mentions her roles in Steel Magnolias, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Forrest Gump. Ultimately, Fields paints a moving, complex self-portrait.
Customer Reviews
I fell in love
As a child I fell in love with Sally as the Flying Nun but as a developing young adult it was her performance in Sybil that inspired my fascination with psychology, invariably resulting in me pursuing a life long career as a Psychologist - my forever thanks Sally.
Not your average movie star autobiography
A beautifully written, brave book
In pieces
Sharing of ones soul, I’ve felt privileged.