"Candice Bergen shows how to do a memoir right. . . . The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen's first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life's surprises. . . . As a fictional newswoman, Murphy Brown was iconically brassy. As a memoirist, Candice Bergen is flesh-and-blood classy."
Description
In this New York Times bestseller, acclaimed actress Candice Bergen “shows how to do a memoir right...The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen’s first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life’s surprises” (The New York Times Book Review).
In her “unflinchingly honest” (The Washington Post) memoir, Candice Bergen recounts the moments that shaped her life: her first marriage at age thirty-four to acclaimed French director Louis Malle; the unleashing of her inner comic with Murphy Brown; the devastation of Malle’s death; the unexpected joy of finding love again; and the deep pride of watching her daughter come into her own.
In her decidedly nontraditional marriage to the insatiably curious Louis, Bergen traces their travels to film sets around the globe. Pregnant with Chloe at thirty-nine, she reflects with warmth and humor on entering motherhood later in life. She also offers vivid, behind-the-scenes glimpses of Murphy Brown, from caterwauling with Aretha Franklin to the surreal moment of becoming headline news when Dan Quayle objected to her character’s choice to become a single mother. With moving honesty, Bergen confronts life’s universal passages: caring for a spouse in his final illness, getting older, and falling in love again after an unexpected blind date.
By the time the last page is turned, “we’re all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door” (USA TODAY).
Reviews
“Bergen is . . . daring in her smart, self-mocking memoir A Fine Romance. . . . She’s awfully good company.”
“Bergen may not have had Murphy’s sharp elbows or unswerving career focus, but she reveals herself to be just as complicated and sophisticated as her television counterpart—and infinitely more introspective. . . . [A Fine Romance] succeeds in the way a good memoir should. It presents a human life in full—with great glories and heartaches and watercolored memories. Bergen tells her story with humor, confidence and candor. Perhaps she’s not so different from Murphy after all."
“A Fine Romance is just that. Candice tells her own story with honesty and humor—a story of loves lost and found, of marriages, joys and heartaches. I am not sure Candice ever realized her own beauty or how well she writes. Well, she is, and she does.”
