Published in 2018
391 pages
Sally Field is an American actress and director. Her acting career began in 1965, when she landed the role of Frances Elizabeth ‘Gidget’ Lawrence in Gidget. Since then she has appeared and directed TV movies and miniseries. She won the Oscar for Best Actress for both Norma Rae in 1979 and Places in the Heart in 1984. Field also won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Brothers & Sisters in 2006.
What is this book about?
One of the most celebrated, beloved, and enduring actors of our time, Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades, beginning with her first TV role at the age of seventeen. With raw honesty and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships–including her complicated love for her own mother. Powerful and unforgettable, In Pieces is an inspiring account of life as a woman in the second half of the twentieth century.
And this review from Jennifer–TarHeelReader from goodreads is helpful:
This was unexpected. I thought I “knew” Sally Field from her movies, but it turns out she has a far-reaching, honest story to tell, and I took my time with it- some parts difficult, but all of it memorable.
Sally Field…My first introduction being either Steel Magnolias or Forrest Gump? I had heard of Gidget, the happy-go-lucky, girl-next-door, cute, charming, all smiles.
Sally Field has a story to tell. It took her seven years to write it and a lifetime to live and process it. She could have kept this all to herself; we certainly never would have known. Her family hardly knew.
Some have asked me if In Pieces is a “star book,” and I would say no. It is not salacious or gossipy, most definitely not braggy or boastful. It just is. She just is. And there most definitely are chronicles of the tv shows and movies as she is launched into stardom because those are part of her story, too. But with that, there’s always a humbleness, a demureness, where she never feels quite settled in her own skin, which you will come to understand as you learn her story; or at least, I did.
I first caught hold of Sally’s story when she wrote of her great grandmother and grandmother. The time periods, their stoicism and other personality traits, their inordinate strength; it all connected with me strongly because of the women in my own family. It had me revisiting my thoughts on another book I read and inter-generational experiences, good and bad, and how we pass them down to our daughters.
Sally Field writes with tenderness and complexity of most everyone she loved in her life, and that’s another aspect that connected to me deeply. It would be easy to write off the ex-boyfriend who was controlling, but a charmer, and make him out to be the monster that was most of the time, but instead she describes why she stayed, his strengths and what connected her to him (not naming any names here; that’s part of the fun of the book!). The same with her childhood love who became her first husband and the father of two of her children. Everyone would love Steve by the way she first describes him, but he is not without flaws, and neither is she.
That ultimately leads me to another aspect I loved. Sally’s honesty and ownership over her life. She doesn’t blame others or feel sorry for herself at any time. She recognizes where she may have played a role, and even when I didn’t agree and felt she was too hard on herself (definitely much too hard on herself!), that modesty she possesses only adds to her authenticity.
I also enjoyed reading about her relationship with her mother- her devotion and the complications in their dynamics. It brought me to tears several times and made me grateful for the ease of my relationship with my mother. Her children are described with the most tenderness, three beautiful boys, that she loves with a ferocity and, yes, she has regrets, but it’s all honest, genuine, authentic.
