She has lived an interesting life, and this is one of the most emotionally narrated memoirs I've ever listened to. Her life story is not an easy one. It is filled with alcohol abuse, sexual assaults and a highly toxic relationship with her mother that I don't think she's really come to terms with even now. Reading many of these experiences made me uncomfortable, want to protect her/yell 'Don't make that choice!' or 'That guy is bad news!' and they were, quite honestly, hard to listen to as a woman and mother myself.
Selma is honest and awkward as she shares her loves, losses, her roles in Hollywood and listing her famous friends. Her health issues, particularly MS, were told with candor. But she also comes off as completely clueless and spoiled when it comes to the privilege she's lived with (the Burberry coats as a child, name dropping celebs, wearing the high-end couture) but it was her mother's on-going verbal abuse and Selma normalizing her propensity to bite people she likes that had me scratching my head. Who does that!?
The storytelling was disorganized and disjointed as she skips between times in her life and various topics and there isn't much page time devoted to self-reflection. Ultimately, this memoir left me a bit frustrated, and for the first time, I think I liked the author more before I read their memoir.
My Rating: 3 stars
Author: Selma Blair
Genre: Memoir
Type and Source: eAudiobook from public library
Narrator: Selma Blair
Run Time: 9 hours, 43 minutes
Publisher: Random House Audio
First Published: May 17, 2022
Book Description from GoodReads: Selma Blair has played many archetypal roles: Gullible ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Fire-starter in Hellboy. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Face of Chanel. Cover model. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best for being one thing: a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Selma Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention. Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape. Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, shocking memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the simultaneous devastation and surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement.
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