A Fine Romance

February 16, 2015
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.

The best reason to listen to Candice Bergen's second memoir is to meet a bright and talented woman who has lived a remarkable life, mostly in the public eye. The well-written and affecting book covers the years of her marriage to French film director Louis Malle; their daughter's birth; the balancing of their respective careers, including Bergen's television hit, "Murphy Brown"; and Malle's death. The actress offers a careful, somewhat stilted reading. It's not bad exactly, but the metronomic pacing and flat tone are not as affecting as her writing, which is genuinely involving. Despite this, Bergen's many fans will find much to enjoy. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine