No Ordinary Life

Moving beyond my feelings of rage at the mother which is probably some deep-seated inadequacies I'm projecting but I digress: I also originally had feelings of shallowness in the story. That isn't true. The author also reveals the story isn't meant as some broad strokes demonization of child acting. I think the story was simply meant to make you think. And feel. This author makes you feel. But after you feel you need to reflect on those feelings. Part of a truly free society is nuance, IMHO. Extreme opinions based on the worst of the worst shoved down your throat every day do not in fact give you the authority to dictate the decisions of others. However, a balanced, well-informed basis for an opinion does make room for a truly productive debate for solutions. This is an unbelievably zoomed-out, big-picture approach to the themes here but it's where I ended up when reflecting myself in the author's words. The solutions that we need to make directly to the themes in this book also apply to so many other issues we are facing. Stop worrying so much about telling others what they should be doing. Stop worrying about other individuals at all, in fact. Especially stop worshipping them: rather an actor, a musician, a politician. They are human and deserving of some forgiveness and grace every once in a while as well. Let's worry about solving the big issues. And that's done with our feelings but also with the facts and reflecting on those feelings. Straight up, lacking humanity, logic is getting us nowhere fast.

This whole book was life happening to Faye and Faye whining about it. She refused to take control. She just let things happen. The drama from their exposure to the dark side of Hollywood was interesting. It just never developed into a page turner. I’ve enjoyed several books by Redfearn. This one was a letdown. It was just a lot of angst and bemoaning.