My Story: an Autobiography by Mary Astor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Thinking about this honest exposition of Marty Astor's love life, drinking and pills addiction, and hatred of the movie & TV treadmill makes me consider [b:My Wicked Wicked Ways|883107|My Wicked Wicked Ways|Errol Flynn|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-6121bf4c1f669098041843ec9650ca19.png|868384]. Is the salacious, tell-all autobiography a Hollywood invention of the mid-Twentieth Century?
Mary's story starts with parents, especially her father, that was incredibly ambitious for her; even maniacally so. Their plan succeeds and an incredibly sheltered Mary Astor becomes a contract player and has to individuate under artificial and extreme circumstances. Marriages and mania follow until Mary finds a path to peace through Catholicism and psychology. Both come from caring and competent priests. A divorce makes Mary's diary both a legal and public issue, but writing that caused so much stress is also an answer as this autobiography is the result of a therapeutic writing assignment.
Mary's honest and direct delivery makes this an engaging read. The only thing that keeps it from four starts for me is the architecture. The chapter divisions, for instance, seems just to segment material into even buckets. A little editing could have nudged this from very good to great.
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