Where Am I Now?

June 13, 2016
Wilson, a 1990s child star (Matilda, Mrs. Doubtfire) turned writer and performer, has experienced a great many highs (working with Robin Williams and Danny DeVito) as well as lows (the death of her mother when Wilson was eight) in her young life, and she shares them all with honesty, humor, and humility in this heartfelt portrait. A ham from an early age, she charms the cast and crew on sets where she’s often the only child, her stories and curiosity getting laughs; but Wilson is also a worrier who, at seven, is imagining the flowers at her funeral. The highly sensitive child is profoundly affected by the bad behavior of the Melrose Place characters she witnesses during her time on the show, and Hollywood feeds her growing well of anxieties. She becomes fixated on germs and perfectionism, and overly superstitious; later she’s diagnosed with OCD. Wilson struggles through the years after the loss of her mother; she’s painfully rejected by her industry when she’s no longer a cute moppet, and she slowly realizes that she wants to stop acting. But she’s still drawn to the spotlight and finds her place on the stages of New York’s exploding storytelling scene, becoming the “Ashkenazi Scheherazade.” Wilson is a warm narrator, and the challenges she describes facing and working through will likely resonate with those battling mental illness. Agent: Alyssa Reuben, Paradigm Talent Agency.

July 15, 2016
A 20-something playwright and actor's memoir about her childhood journey to Hollywood fame and teenage descent into contented semiobscurity.Wilson began acting at age 5. After pestering her mother to let her do commercials like her older brother, she was soon called to audition for a part in the Robin Williams vehicle Mrs. Doubtfire. Her role in that film led to appearances on TV shows like Melrose Place and in movies like Miracle on 34th Street and Matilda, a film with which she would become permanently identified. Yet from an early age, Wilson realized that her cuteness, compared to Shirley Temple's audience-pleasing good looks, could render her susceptible to the kind of studio control that Temple had faced. "Everyone in the world [would know] a version of Mara Wilson that wasn't me at all," she writes. By the time she was a teenager, the looks that had brought her early fame could not compete with those of other young actresses like Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson. Refusing to use cosmetic surgery to try to save a career she questioned, Wilson began to focus more on dealing with who she was: a girl with deep fears and compulsions that had emerged in childhood and had begun affecting her daily life and relationships. Despite her disenchantment with Hollywood, she retained a love of performing, which she continued to do as a student at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and which she eventually merged with another childhood love: storytelling. Immersing herself in a community that included other storytellers, stand-up comedians, and burlesque show performers who showed her the power and joy in "liv[ing] your fear," the author at last found herself, "her people," and her creative stride. This funny, at times painful, but always honest book tells a coming-of-age story that is not only entertaining, but also wise. Learning the lessons of self-acceptance and finding strength in vulnerability is often the best success of all. A readably candid, sharp memoir.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 15, 2016

Wilson, of Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and Matilida fame, proves in this collection of essays that she should be recognized as more than just a former child movie star. The author is a playwright and an oral storyteller, and now in her debut book, she writes about her film career and after. She tells of serious aspects of her life such as her mother's cancer and her own battle with mental illnesses--obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. She also writes about her high school show choir, her first boyfriend, working with funnymen Robin Williams and Danny DeVito, and her dislike of the word "cute." This title is more than just another Hollywood memoir; it is a truly refreshing coming-of-age story. Some readers will pick up this book because "Matilda" wrote it, but many others should pick it up because of the lyrical and affecting prose. Wilson's perspective is humorous, relatable, and ultimately real. VERDICT Fans of Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy will especially be entertained by Wilson's story of accidental fame.--Natalie Browning, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community Coll. Lib., Richmond, VA

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.