Review: My Mother Was Nuts

My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Earlier this year, we cut the cord and being without cable I have discovered some of the networks airing syndicated reruns, like 'Laverne & Shirley' w/perky and positive Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) sharing an apartment with Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall), a tough-talking tomboy. Personally, I always appreciated Williams more, but just because her delivery was more like my own comedic style. I would never be as bold and overt as Penny Marshall - and I liked that about her. Seeing these reruns on MeTV made me seek out autobiographies from the comedienne greats and since Shirley, I Jest is not an Audible audiobook (yet, I hope), hear I am reading Marshall's memoir.

Marshall gets extra points from me for delivery a performance, like a an audiobook written by a performer deserves. Reading her words is cracking wise, and nearly crying when she recalls deaths and breakups. She also brings in some siblings to voice their relevant memories. I would have been glad to have a chapter on each of the show's seasons and episode highlights. Of course, her life is much more than that and with relatively little about the show, I don't miss it. Before the success of the show, there is the arc from her mother's dancing school to breaking into Hollywood with the help of her established brother. There is much on her personal life from an early pregnancy and marriage to later relationships with a globe-trotting Art Garfunkel and Rob Reiner from the neighborhood. She also is very forthcoming on some casual drug experimentation and two unexpected pregnancies. Mostly, on her career, I walked away with more understanding and respect for her pioneering work as a female director directing films such as Big (1988; with interesting tidbits about getting the famous floor piano made), the first film directed by a woman to gross in excess of $100 million at the U.S. box office; Awakenings (1990; with details on De Niro and Williams and how there was no fight), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture; and A League of Their Own (1992; part of her expression as an ardent sports fan).

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