Finding Me

I have been a fan of Viola Davis' ever since I saw her play the character Aibileen Clark in the movie adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. She has always been an actress I've been drawn to so when I heard she had written a memoir, I grabbed a copy of the hardcover and bought the eAudiobook. Once I heard Davis telling her story in her own voice, I quickly opted for the eAudiobook which I listened to it on my road trip to Quebec with my husband a couple of weeks ago. 

This is one of my favourite books of 2022 so far. Well-written, raw, emotional and authentic, Davis describes her life from childhood to present day from the abuse and extreme poverty she suffered in her early life, to her struggles with sexism and racism as a Black female actor to her success on stage and screen and finding out who she was meant to be. By the end of the first chapter, I was overcome with emotion - yup, sobbin' in my morning Cheerios I was - as she describes her early life. These experiences were emotional and often traumatic which influenced her relationship with the inner child that she carried with her for decades.  

Despite her traumatic childhood, she tells her story without malice, without blame. Her relationships with her family are complicated (with a capital C), but she shows how they have transformed over the years and helped her on her way to being the strong, dignified, amazingly talented human she is today. I especially loved how she described her personal love story with husband Julius Tennon (may we all have a Julius in our lives!) and her feelings and experiences as a Black actress in an entertainment industry that often saw her as not as pretty, valued or talented due to her gender, race and skin tone. 

As Black women, we are complicated. We are feminine. We are sexual. We are beautiful. We’re pretty. There are people out there who desire us. We are deserving. So that’s why I’m very aware of what my presence means. And that’s why I’m also aware of why I need to be emotionally healthy. Because that’s a lot of responsibility. Because you’re coming up against a four-hundred-year-old narrative.

This memoir is magnificent, emotional, and powerful. Hearing Viola Davis read her life story to me in this audiobook, in her one-of-a kind voice, was the icing on the proverbial cake. This award-winning actress and producer brings readers into her innermost feelings, her highest highs and her lowest lows with grace, honesty and humility. 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend this memoir.   

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Viola Davis

Genre: Memoir

Type and Source: eAudiobook from Audible, Hardcover from public library

Narrator: Viola Davis

Run Time: 9 hours, 15 min

Publisher: HarperAudio

First Published: April 26, 2022

Book Description from GoodReads: In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.

This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.