Barrymore’s stories leap off the page

Countless celebrities have written autobiographies. Not a lot are like Drew Barrymore’s. And that’s a good thing. Her book Wildflower bounces around chronologically and thematically and generally bends the rules of conventional memoir writing.

“If it feels personal for you, then I am so happy, because it was personal for me,” Barrymore writes in the not-a-memoir’s preface. “I didn’t write it in any particular format.”

The lack of a traditional structure works, though, because the end result for the reader is an illuminating and entertaining look back at the famously free-spirited actress’s 40 years on Earth.

Free of — pardon the pun — flowery writing, the book is as down-toearth as the author herself appears. It is also self-deprecating, with references to Barrymore’s “klutziness” and her “valley girl” cadence.

Barrymore makes sure to touch on moments that are well-known to the masses, including her: role in the classic film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, exhibitionist appearance on David Letterman’s talk show and three big-screen collaborations with comedian Adam Sandler.

The owner of one of the most famous surnames in Hollywood, Barrymore — granddaughter of famed actor John Barrymore and grandniece of renowned actors Lionel and Ethel Barrymore — has been a working actor most of her life.

A life that has had more than a few ups and downs. “I just grew up too fast,” she writes.

Written a quarter-century after the release of Barrymore’s Little Girl Lost, which chronicled her turbulent early years, Wildflower is the work of a mother of two young girls who has a much different perspective on the world.

Wildflower is at its most engrossing when the author delves into her relationships with those who have affected her life, including her barely there parents and supportive in-laws and friends, among them E.T. director Steven Spielberg, who “took me in, a girl who needed a father, and it meant the world to me.”