JANE FONDA: MY LIFE SO FAR by Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda has lived a very interesting life and she relates it candidly and fearlessly in her autobiography, JANE FONDA: MY LIFE SO FAR. This book will entertain, amuse, alienate, and shock some of its readers, but all who peruse the pages will have to admire the openness Fonda brings to her story. She may be spilling the goods on a lot of people but no one is as openly dissected as she is.
The book is divided into three sections of her life so far. The first deals with her life as Henry Fonda's daughter. She talks of her feelings of alienation from him and her desperate means to try to break through the icy reserve that surrounded him. She was shaped by that isolation and by her mother's death. These two incidents formulated the person she was during the first third of her life.
The second act, or second third of her life was when she became politically involved. This was the period on which most people focused their attention. And it is those political actions that brought her the most acclaim and most hatred. She speaks openly of her opposition to the Vietnam War and acknowledges her mistakes, as she sees them. She apologizes for some things that she says were unintentionally perceived to be against the US soldiers, but still maintains her actions were the correct ones in most instances.
Along the way she slips in some anti-Bush sentiment so anyone who expects her to go quietly into her last third of her life is going to be disappointed. She is and will always be a person who speaks out on wrongs she perceives and for causes she thinks are just.
The last third of her life is just beginning and in this stage she has shed the need to be married to anyone. Ted Turner was her last husband and she doesn't contemplate there being another one. She is devoted to her children, her stepchildren and her grandchildren. Living in Atlanta, Georgia she sees her glass as being very full and life as being worthwhile.
In some portions of her story she gets bogged down in her philosophy and goes on too long. She also is very open in some areas and very coy in others. Some of her lovers are named but other names of men with whom she was involved are withheld. Her daughter Vanessa has two children but the name of the father of those children, or even the very existence of a father, is never discussed. This is very much a book of Jane discussing what Jane wants to discuss.
What sets this book apart from others of its type is the fact it sounds very personal. It is written in her voice, with all her beliefs and prejudices on display. She is an insecure, but demanding woman; an icon but a woman who longs to be just "one of us"; a star who has dealt with heads of state, but also a woman who stands in awe of the Katherine Hepburns of the world. She is a paradox in many ways but a singular soul in others. She is unique and she is fascinating. Damned or praised, she is still the lightning rod known as Jane Fonda.
JANE FONDA: MY LIFE SO FAR is published by Random House. It contains 624 pages and sells for $26.95.