On one hand, they let authors give personal perspectives on fascinating life experiences and even lay all their cards on the table to control narratives and atone for past wrongs.
On the other hand, they don’t typically lend themselves to objective storytelling, bigger-picture perspectives or inconvenient contexts. And what always feels the weirdest to me: It seems almost impossible—even in the hands of the deftest ghostwriters and editors—to talk about huge accomplishments and victories without sounding shamelessly braggy.
All that said, Liza Minnelli has lived an epic life of accomplishments, wrongs, victories, catastrophically bad decisions and everything in between—all in a massive international fishbowl and all (in my opinion) with a ton of bemused self-awareness that completely has you on her side when she gets (always very justifiably) braggy.
And this new autobiography lays it ALL (well, as far as she chooses to tell us) on the table.
I’ve always loved her work and I feel that through her performances and interviews I have a pretty good idea of her personality, energy and voice. And the voice in this book nails hers exactly—so huge kudos to her editors for that.
That voice takes us excitedly through everything from her earliest memories to today, veering off into side stories, then veering off into other side stories on her way back. She talks about becoming aware of her Hollywood-kid bubble, her work to succeed without nepotism, her drive to prove herself on her own terms, her many marriages that seem in retrospect to have a bit of a foundation of being in love with love … and all through it she’s incredibly frank about her endless ups and downs with substance-use disorder.
(TLDR: I very much love pretty much everything in this book, but my only criticism is her stories of long addictions and lengthy sobrieties don’t always get synched up with her many side stories and loops back to her core narrative, and it cumulatively gives the impression that she’s lived her entire life drunk and high.)
Liza (we’re on a first-name basis) fills the book with glowing, gushing things about pretty much everyone from close friends to ex-husbands to temperamental directors to the people drifting in and out of her extended Hollywood family. So when she lets loose on someone who she thought was truly awful, you really sit up and take notice.
It’s no secret that her last marriage to the slimy grifter David Gest was a horrifying joke to everyone but her when she was in it. But once she escaped and saw what he’d done to her and her finances and relationships and career … watch out. The chapter where she goes off on him is both deliciously explosive and completely heartbreaking.
She also lashes out at some unscrupulous managers, agents, doctors and other people who saw opportunities to take advantage of her and exploited the hell out of them.
But one of the most surprising and upsetting is her telling of mistreatment by Lady Gaga backstage at the Academy Awards. I love Liza. I love Lady Gaga. And I’m not sure what to do with Liza’s story of their meeting.
All that said, the book is a great, fascinating, fun read. If you love Liza and the extended Lizaverse you’ll be all-in from the first page. And even if you’re only kinda-interested in her life, you’ll have fun on the journey.
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