August 22, 2005
As Garr describes growing up on the fringes of 1950s and '60s Hollywood in a "gypsy showbiz family," studying ballet, ignoring school and sneaking into auditions pretending to be older than she was, readers will realize hers is a pretty familiar Hollywood story. She didn't sleep with Elvis or one of the Beatles like Peggy Lipton did, but she was next door when her girlfriend went to bed with Elvis, and she sat in the recording studio during the making of Yellow Submarine
. Garr worked her way from smaller parts (dancer in Viva Las Vegas
and other Elvis movies) to bigger ones (Tootsie
; Mr. Mom
) until her career was finally on track. Alas, this is when she discovered she had no life—no husband, no baby—and started scrambling. She'd also developed a limp and some intermittent neurological tics. In 1983, a specialist diagnosed multiple sclerosis and prescribed the medication Garr has become a spokesperson for: Rebif, a form of interferon. When she's not crisscrossing the country talking about MS, Garr's taking life pretty slowly, enjoying time with her young daughter. As she says, one "of the only things we can control about any affliction—and life in general—is our attitude toward dealing with it." Readers who liked Lipton's or Hawn's memoirs should enjoy Garr's, too.
Starred review from February 6, 2006
This dishy memoir may be about "speedbumps"—obstacles that slow a person's journey in life—but Garr's delivery is smooth as glass, with no jarring notes. Garr's performance highlights her wonderfully edgy sarcasm and self-deprecating humor. This audio version is often better than the print book, particularly when Garr launches into funny digressions or catty parenthetical comments about people in Hollywood. She seems to have a marvelous time poking fun at herself, from her drama-queen tendencies to the ways she used to pad her résumé. Her behind-the-scenes commentaries about some of her more famous roles, such as the buxom German nurse in Young Frankenstein
, are delicious. The last third of Garr's book is devoted to multiple sclerosis, which she was definitively diagnosed as having in 1999, after 20 years of strange, on-again, off-again symptoms. But even here, her humor is in full sway, as she describes her new role as a celebrity spokesperson for the disease. Listeners will cheer her on as she invites us along for an exciting ride, speed bumps and all. Simultaneous release with the Hudson Street hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 22).