Ali in Wonderland

Ali Wentworth's performance of her own memoir is at its best when she sounds spontaneous, down-to-earth, and endearing. Told as a series of loosely connected anecdotes that shuttle back and forth in sequence, Wentworth offers flashes of the honest, quirky confidante. One can't help but like her as she jauntily shares scenes that range from the mundane to the fascinating. However, the listener can't escape the fact that Wentworth's life has been far from typical, what with her mother serving as a White House social secretary and the author's own boarding school upbringing. Some scenes get stuck at the surface while others try too hard for laughs. Overall, though, the segments when Wentworth is enjoying herself make this a worthy listen. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

October 31, 2011
Depending on whom you ask, Wentworth (The WASP Cookbook) is best known for roles on TV’s In Living Color and Head Case, her appearances on Oprah, or her 2001 marriage to George Stephanopoulous. The busy author’s fun, adventure-filled memoir is rife with colorful turns of phrase (for example, “I felt like a Chihuahua after the neighborhood bully lit the firecracker in its ass”) and humorous tales of her privileged upbringing, various suitors, and trips abroad. The author’s mother, Muffie—who worked as Nancy Reagan’s social secretary—looms large, often as the example against which a young Ali rebelled. Wentworth is amusing and frank, often frenetic, with sharp intelligence underneath the sassy wackiness; passages about her struggle with depression, falling in love with her husband, and her daughter’s baptism have funny moments, but they’re thoughtful and touching, too. Dishy tidbits about famous folk, from Henry Kissinger to Cher, round out this highly entertaining memoir.

February 15, 2012
Comedienne Wentworth revisits her privileged and precocious early years. In this satirical dissection of class and privilege, the author, daughter of President Ronald Reagan's social secretary Muffie Cabot, mines a childhood spent among America's elite. By the time she landed a role on the sketch show In Living Color, Wentworth had already put on vaudevillian after-dinner performances for Henry Kissinger. As a socialite in training, she keyed into a number of important life lessons--e.g., "There's a fine line between WASP victuals and white-trash cuisine." Wentworth's glib take on America's social hierarchy might initially seem like a blue blood's guide to slumming it, but her savvy understanding of what she's been given versus what she's earned makes for a sharp critique of class and power. She probes her marriage to former political operative and current TV newsman George Stephanopoulos for insights about pregnancy, child-rearing and compromise. Her understated prose and deadpan humor go a long way toward making this account of life among the one-percenters easy to swallow. If readers aren't taken with her charm, they'd be well advised to follow her mother's catch-all advice: "Just go to the Four Seasons." Nothing's better than blocking out the world behind silk curtains, sinking into crisp linen sheets and ringing for tea and crumpets. Wentworth would likely suggest the same remedy to readers who aren't immediately enamored with her collection of vignettes. She'd be winking slyly as she did, though. A smart, often-funny memoir.

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January 1, 2012
There is a moment in every woman's life in which she becomes completely unzipped, demented, whacked, non compos mentis begins actress and comedienne Wentworth's lively, laugh-out-loud memoir. Wentworth, perhaps best known for her role as Schmoopie in Seinfeld's infamous Soup Nazi episode, has spent her life surrounded by characters so over-the-top she couldn't possibly have made them up. Headlining the eccentric entourage is her drop-dead hilarious WASP mother, Muffie, who once served as President Reagan's White House social secretary. (No-nonsense and seemingly free of neuroses, Muffie deals with any stressful situation by booking a room at the Four Seasons.) Wentworth, who is married to esteemed journalist George Stephanopoulos, may have been born inside the Beltway, but there's no spinning in her candid commentary on psychotic roommates, persnickety bosses, and the well-fed family that hosted her during a summer in Spain. The clan's patriarch, she writes, looked like Javier Bardem if Javier Bardem had swallowed Penelope Cruz. Fans of Amy Sedaris and Merrill Markoe will enjoy Wentworth's warped weltanschauung and wicked wit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)