A Fine Romance
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In this New York Times bestseller, acclaimed actress Candice Bergen “shows how to do a memoir right...The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen’s first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life’s surprises” (The New York Times Book Review).
“Candice Bergen is unflinchingly honest” (The Washington Post), and in A Fine Romance she describes her first marriage at age thirty-four to famous French director Louis Malle; her overpowering love for her daughter, Chloe; the unleashing of her inner comic with Murphy Brown; her trauma over Malle’s death; her joy at finding new love; and her pride at watching Chloe blossom.
In her decidedly nontraditional marriage to the insatiably curious Louis, Bergen takes readers on world travels to the sets where each made films. Pregnant with Chloe at age thirty-nine, this mature primigravida also recounts a journey through motherhood that includes plundering the Warner Bros. costume closets for Halloween getups and never leaving her ever-expanding menagerie out of the fun. She offers priceless, behind-the-scenes looks at Murphy Brown, from caterwauling with Aretha Franklin to the surreal experience of becoming headline news when Dan Quayle took exception to her character becoming a single mother. Bergen tackles familiar rites of passage with moving honesty: the rigors of caring for a spouse in his final illness, getting older, and falling in love again after she was tricked into a blind date.
By the time the last page is turned, “we’re all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door” (USA TODAY).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With her trademark wit, Bergen (Knock Wood) leads readers through the highs and lows of her professional and personal life in this entertaining and poignant memoir chock-full of Hollywood cameos. After a disastrous first date unexpectedly leads to love, Bergen marries French director Louis Malle in 1980 and the pair travel the world as their respective films take them from India to France. Always ambivalent about motherhood, Bergen decides to have a child at the relatively late age of 39. Their daughter, Chloe, is born in 1985 an event that changes the dynamic of Bergen's relationship with Malle, as he's unable to be wholly present for Chloe's upbringing due to filming commitments. The desire for a steady schedule is one perk that draws Bergen to the groundbreaking CBS comedy series Murphy Brown. Her descriptions of the rewards and challenges that came with playing the titular tough-talking "Mike Wallace in a skirt," her first foray into both TV and real comedy, are among the book's strongest sections. Dealt a crushing blow when Malle was diagnosed with a rare and fatal neurological disease and died in 1995, Bergen recounts finding her footing again both in her career she spent several seasons on the series Boston Legal and in her love life, marrying New York real estate developer Marshall Rose in 2000. Never afraid to poke fun at herself or celebrity culture, Bergen is as fresh, funny, and biting as Murphy Brown was nearly 30 years ago.
