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Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays
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About This Book
A MARIE CLAIRE BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR - A USA TODAY MUST READ BOOK - A W MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK - A SHEREADS BEST MEMOIR OF THE SUMMER A charming, poignant, and mesmerizing memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn't. In this intimate, beautifully crafted collection, Driver writes with disarming charm and candor about her bohemian upbringing between England and Barbados; her post-university travails and triumphs--from being the only student in her acting school not taken on by an agent to being discovered at a rave in a muddy field in the English countryside; shooting to fame in one of the most influential films of the 1990s and being nominated for an Academy Award; and finding the true light of her life, her son. She chronicles her unconventional career path, including the time she gave up on acting to sell jeans in Uruguay, her journey as a single parent, and the heartbreaking loss of her mother. Like Lena Dunham in Not That Kind of Girl, Gabrielle Union in We're Going to Need More Wine and Patti Smith in Just Kids, Driver writes with razor-sharp humor and grace as she explores navigating the depths of failure, fighting for success, discovering the unmatched wonder and challenge of motherhood, and wading through immeasurable grief. Effortlessly charming, deeply funny, personal, and honest, Managing Expectations reminds us of the way life works out--even when it doesn't.
Reviews
"The fiercest writing in Managing Expectations is in its concluding chapter about her mother, fashion designer Gaynor Churchward, who died last year following a cancer diagnosis ..."
"she brilliantly captures her child self's angry sense of abandonment by both her parents, but presents that rage from the perspective of an adult who has come to terms with those parents' faults ..."
"She has an eye for the telling detail and easily parses the significance of each experience she writes about."
"Throughout, Driver's beguiling wit and candor steal the show, even as she contends with the more difficult subjects later in life ..."
"Driver engagingly writes about family dramas, self-doubt, her unruly hair, unexpected motherhood, and the trajectory of her career ..."
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