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.

January 1, 2015
Award-winning actress Bergen continues the story begun in the best-selling memoir, Knock Wood (1984). This second installment of the author's autobiography focuses on the three great loves of her life: her two husbands and her daughter. When she met her first husband, French director Louis Malle (1932-1995), "[s]parks decidedly did not fly." Less than a year after their first awkward introduction, however, the two were married. The showbiz woman who "dealt strictly in commerce" was soon immersed in a world of elegance and high art alongside a dynamic man she affectionately calls a "cultural commando." During the early years of her marriage, Bergen struggled with ambivalence over whether or not to have a family. At age 39, she gave birth to a daughter, Chloe, who would in time become even closer to Bergen than the globe-trotting Malle. Her stalled acting career took off shortly afterward when she was chosen to play the lead in the iconic TV series Murphy Brown. By the early 1990s, the show would inspire a "family values" controversy for its fearless portrayal of a hard-driving career woman who becomes an unwed mother. Bergen admits that the success strained relations with her husband. At the same time, it also helped her to carve out her professional identity as a comedian while giving her the "weight" and "self-definition" she needed to define the boundaries of home and family. Her golden life ground to a temporary halt when Malle was diagnosed with a rare and fatal brain disease. Within three years of his death, however, Bergen met her next husband, billionaire New York real estate developer Marshall Rose. More settled than the peripatetic Malle, Rose not only offered the actress entree among the New York City social elite, he also brought her the next great challenge of her life: learning how to appreciate a life genuinely lived in tandem.A glamorously bittersweet showbiz memoir.

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February 15, 2015
She has been Dan Quayle's nemesis on TV's Murphy Brown and the irascible Shirley Schmidt on Boston Legal. She has been the so-called sister of ventriloquist's dummy Charlie McCarthy and was married to the iconic director Louis Malle. Yet in her second memoir (following Knock Wood, 1984), Bergen emerges as Everywoman, equally comfortable in ratty sweats or vintage Versace, playing Scrabble or attending the Oscars. Placing the late-in-life birth of her daughter, Chloe, at the epicenter of the past 30-plus years, Bergen revisits times that brought her unimaginable success onscreen and unspeakable heartache off. She comes across in ways one would imagine, sparkling and sophisticated, but also in ways one would not. She is as bawdy as she is beautiful, as gutsy as she is fragile, as savvy as she is sensitive. Bergen expresses her fierce adoration of Chloe, her sheer delight in her second marriage to financier Marshall Rose, and her brazen acceptance of the indignities of aging in an industry that prizes youth. A disarming and refreshing read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2015

Humor and honesty strike a fine balance in this absorbing follow-up memoir by actress/writer Bergen (Knock Wood). The book is more an investigation of human experience--marriage, motherhood, family, friendship, work, aging, and death--than a celebrity behind-the-scenes memoir. Bergen shares details of her marriage to brilliant film director Louis Malle, from their first meeting through his untimely death, and winningly describes becoming a mother at a later age than some. There are cherished everyday moments and major events here, from trick-or-treating adventures to facing Malle's final illness. She provides multidimensional and idiosyncratic portraits of Malle, their daughter Chloe and, much later, of her second husband, Marshall Rose. Of course, there are details about her work in film, on stage, and in the hit television series Murphy Brown, a show that earned Bergen five Emmys and drew much-publicized comments by Dan Quayle during the presidential campaign of 1992. Yet, this account is not focused on fame. It is Bergen's perceptive, wry, and often surprising take on life that will strike a resonant chord with readers on a down-to-earth, human level. VERDICT Witty and poignant and touching upon the many phases and challenges of daily existence, this book will appeal to a wide audience, especially those who are familiar with Bergen's work. For circulating libraries and entertainment collections. [See Prepub Alert, 10/20/14.]--Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2014

Published in 1984, Knock Wood relates Bergen's coming of age as a woman and an actor. Here, along with an account of her success on Murphy Brown, she discusses her marriage to esteemed French director Louis Malle, the birth of daughter Chloe, and the awful pain of both mother and daughter when Malle died of cancer in 1995.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.