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Summary
Summary
Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez's never-before-told story of surviving a harrowing childhood and of how she found success--both in and out of the Hollywood limelight.
Rosie Perez first caught our attention with her fierce dance in the title sequence of Do the Right Thing and has since defined herself as a funny and talented actress who broke boundaries for Latinas in the film industry. What most people would be surprised to learn is that the woman with the big, effervescent personality has a secret straight out of a Dickens novel. At the age of three, Rosie's life was turned upside down when her mentally ill mother tore her away from the only family she knew and placed her in a Catholic children's home in New York's Westchester County. Thus began her crazily discombobulated childhood of being shuttled between "the Home," where she and other kids suffered all manners of cruelty from nuns, and various relatives' apartments in Brooklyn.
Many in her circumstances would have been defined by these harrowing experiences, but with the intense determination that became her trademark, Rosie overcame the odds and made an incredible life for herself. She brings her journey vividly to life on each page of this memoir--from the vibrant streets of Brooklyn to her turbulent years in the Catholic home, and finally to film and TV sets and the LA and New York City hip-hop scenes of the 1980s and '90s.
More than a page-turning read, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life is a story of survival. By turns heartbreaking and funny, it is ultimately the inspirational story of a woman who has found a hard-won place of strength and peace.
Author Notes
ROSIE PEREZ is an Oscar-nominated actress, whose credits include Do the Right Thing, White Men Can't Jump, Fearless, and The Counselor . She is the Artistic Chair of Urban Arts Partnership and sits on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rosie Perez, actress, choreographer, and activist known for her roles in films such as Do the Right Thing and White Men Can't Jump, opens up about everything from her difficult upbringing in a home for girls run by nuns to the breaks and trials of fame and silver screen success. Perez's life takes an unexpected turn when, living in L.A. and taking college classes, she is plucked from a crowd of dancers at a club to appear on Soul Train. Soon enough, Spike Lee discovers her at a "butt contest" and she is cast in his breakout film. While die-hard Perez fans may appreciate peaks at the actress' early life, the book otherwise falls flat. Perez speaks from the heart when describing an abusive childhood, but the carefree prose doesn't do the darker material justice. There is very little entertainment tell-all here: we learn that her mother suddenly turned kind after Perez became successful, there was drama with the Fly Girls on In Living Color, and that Jennifer Lopez was, as much as Perez liked her, challenging to work with. Half difficult-childhood tale, half celebrity-memoir, both storylines end up lacking. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A celebrated Puerto Rican actress's memoir about how she found success despite growing up in unstable and often abusive environments. Brooklyn native Perez spent the first three years of her life with her father's sister, a woman she called "Mommie." When her beautiful but schizophrenic birth mother, Lydia, unexpectedly re-entered her life, it was to take her to a Catholic home for children 50 miles outside of New York City. Shocked and confused, Perez knew almost nothing but injustice from that moment forward. The nuns often lacked compassion, and her mother was as neglectful as she was cruel. The only person who genuinely cared for her was her aunt, who struggled for years against both Lydia and the New York court system to get custody of her niece. Perez's ebullience and scrappiness put her at odds with all of her guardians, but they also allowed her to survive her ever-changing cast of sometimes-abusive caretakers. Despite these challenges, the author still managed to reconnect with her father, Ismael, who helped her learn to appreciate her Puerto Rican identity at a crucial time in an otherwise fraught adolescence. Along the way, she discovered a gift for dancing that would eventually get her noticed in a Los Angeles nightclub by Soul Train creator Don Cornelius. She became a respected hip-hop choreographer and then caught the eye of film director Spike Lee, who cast her in his 1989 film Do the Right Thing. Perez ultimately went on to become the poor Brooklyn girl who made good; but in her personal life, she continued to struggle with the searing aftereffects of her difficult life, including PTSD and depression. With refreshing candor and sass, Perez transforms the painful details of her life into an inspiring reminder that even the most unforgiving of personal circumstances can be overcome. A spunky and heartfelt memoir.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
Celebrities, from Rob Lowe to Diane Keaton, narrate the audiobooks of their memoirs. LET'S BE HONEST: Celebrities don't usually write great memoirs. But the best ones offer up dish and dirt and some sensationally bizarre yarns. I got hooked in my 20s with Desi Arnaz's "A Book" and Kirk Douglas's racy "The Ragman's Son" and Sammy Davis Jr.'s "Yes I Can." Friends might shake their heads at my choices, but did they know that Kirk Douglas seduced an anti-Semitic hotel owner so that he could whisper at the moment of climax that she was in bed with a Jew? You see my point. When actors record the audio versions of their memoirs, the experience of peeking into their lives can be even more intimate. Not all actors excel at narration, however. Sean Pratt, who has been recording books since 1996 and took on the gargantuan task of reading "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, told me that what works in front of a camera doesn't necessarily translate to the intimacy of a studio and microphone. "It's a whole different kind of performance," he said. "It's jazz. It's bebop. You're always changing the delivery style." Testing Pratt's thesis, and hoping to satisfy my craving for some popcorn listening, I took on four recent audiobooks by actors. Pratt was right: When it works, it's magical. And when it doesn't - well, you know Audible lets you "return" books you hated and get a refund, right? You probably won't be returning Rob Lowe's LOVE LIFE (Simon and Schuster), though. His first memoir, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends" (2011), established him as an engaging riffer with outrageous stories. The new book is more loosely woven, with passages about going on a date with Madonna and his growing love of offbeat roles that undermine his pretty-boy reputation. (Check out what they did to his face in "Behind the Candelabra.") He also touches on politics and his shift from lifelong Democrat to independent voter with a libertarian streak as he found himself supporting Arnold Schwarzenegger's run for governor of California. "Like 'recreational' drug use, the idea of slavish party loyalty seems like an outdated and unhealthy concept," he says. Ultimately, this is a book about being a grown-up - about Lowe loving his wife of more than 20 years, and the emotional turmoil that struck him while dropping off his son at college. Lowe's voice grows husky when he recalls that he used to wrap the boy in a blanket "like a burrito." Some may tear up; I cringed a little. But Lowe is generally smooth and self-assured. He treats listeners to his rendition of the "Ohio Scream," a bloodcurdling shriek that plays a part in a campfire prank in which he dresses up as Bigfoot. Wackiness ensues. A groin is kicked. It is his. A different kind of pain runs through HANDBOOK FOR AN UNPREDICTABLE LIFE: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (With Great Hair) (Random House). Rosie Perez takes the reader through her rags-to-riches story with great energy. Perez was abandoned by her mother for her first three years of life. The mother later reclaimed little Rosie only to place her in an orphanage. Perez would visit her mother's home occasionally, where there was no warmth but plenty of violence, and a half-brother who she says sexually assaulted her. Perez learned to live with adversity, and even to thrive. At the orphanage, she made friends with girls with names like Crazy Cindy and Puerto Rican-Jew Evita Feinstein. They survived the fierce tutelage of some very tough nuns, who maintained discipline with beatings. Little wonder that years later, Perez would receive a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Perez was entranced by television and music, and was mad for "Soul Train" and the movies of Woody Allen and Neil Simon. She also gets to know her father, a brazen ladies' man who introduced her to the wonders of his native Puerto Rico. Eventually her love of dancing lands her a gig on "Soul Train" and a career as a choreographer before Spike Lee cast her in "Do the Right Thing." That film provides one of the book's funniest scenes. Her father took his friends, family and pastor to see the movie. But Rosie hadn't warned him about her nude scene, which incidentally involved ice cubes. "When the ice cube scene came on, my father gasped, jumped up, grabbed his heart, and fell out cold - no lie!" It turned out to be a panic attack; he asked her to warn him in the future when she makes an "'artistic' film." "Handbook" is a careering ride, crowded with family struggles and reconciliation and therapy-inflected observations. Perez says of her siblings, "We were kids that were all abused and didn't know how to articulate all the pain and anger." The cuteness can pile on at times, with memories of happy moments in childhood - whether watching television in the orphanage or getting a treat - punctuated with "Yay!" which she pronounces "Yayee!" Moments of pride are followed by "Holla!" Her delivery can be uneven, her spoken rhythm occasionally falters. But those are small flaws in an uplifting and enjoyable debut. Diane Keaton's new book, LET'S JUST SAY IT WASN'T PRETTY (Random House), follows up her first memoir, the well-received "Then Again" (2011). This one is more scattershot. Ostensibly a meditation on the nature of beauty, it chronicles the development of Keaton's distinctive fashion sense and her thoughts on the body. She engages in long arguments with herself and falls into digressions. She folds in memories from her childhood, muses on raising her two children and discusses the meaning she's found in renovating homes. If you ever suspected that her dizzy otherworldliness is an act, you will be reassured of her sincerity after reading that she trips and breaks her toe while walking the dog because "I decided to try the advice of Dr. Tan, my acupuncturist, and take a backward walk with Emmie in an effort to employ the underutilized part of my brain." The book is most lively when she describes her relationship with Woody Allen, who early on told her that she would always do well in show business. "You're funny, and funny is money." He leaves voice mail messages for her in which he calls her "half-wit" and says, "The Golden Globes wanted to know where I could find someone stupid enough to come and pick up my Cecil B. DeMille Award, and all of a sudden it occurred to me, I don't know why, but your face in a beekeeper's hat came to mind." He closes a follow-up message with, "Worm, call me back." She refers to this fondly as a "healinghumor, funny-is-money phone call from Woody." If you say so, Diane. Her narration elevates the work; the warmth of that famous voice brings bubble and flow to the prose. You get the feeling that she could be a terrific audiobook narrator if she had better material. The surprise charmer of the stack is the memoir by Judy Greer, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW ME FROM: Confessions of a Co-Star (Random House), a grab bag of essays by a comic actress who has appeared in more than 90 movies and television shows, but whom few people might be able to identify. (She refers to herself as "the ultimate best friend.") Her stories are sweetly weird and scatological, such as her night at the Oscars when she decides she has to take off her Spanx or lose her mind. This effort lands her in a toilet stall wrestling with her undergarments and wondering what would happen if the Big One, that predicted earthquake, were to strike. She fantasizes the news story: "Recognizable actress whose name we can't place is found naked in the rubble that was once the bathroom of the Kodak Theater." Her voice, zinging somewhere between chipper and chipmunk, might grate on the ears of some listeners. But for people searching for a loyal gal pal, this could be just the thing. My long voyage through the seas of four me-me-me memoirs was done; I'd gorged on fluff. After finishing the last book, I was ready for "Moby-Dick" - a version I'd been saving, narrated by the great Frank Muller. Did you know that Ahab's last words were taken from a Star Trek movie? Wait. Reverse that. Maybe I've been spending a little too much time with Hollywood. JOHN SCHWARTZ is a national correspondent for The Times and the author of "Oddly Normal."
