Born with Teeth

I was both impressed and disappointed in this book.
Kate Mulgrew is a better writer than I was expecting - her prose is lyrical and enthralling. I found it difficult to put this book down, which is why I gave it 3 instead of 2 stars.

Regarding content...as an actress, I can't say it's all that surprising to find that she's very flamboyant and dramatic in the telling of her life as well as the living of it, but even when she was obviously writing from her heart, I found it difficult to find the authentic in it. Her passions run hot and fleeting, at the expense of almost any other thing in her life except her acting. She didn't appear to struggle at all in the acting business. She hadn't even finished acting school when she was cast simultaneously in two major parts on tv and the stage, and from there, her obvious acting chops and professionalism were always recognized. Except for that one time she botched her audition for the captain of a starship, after which she said something to the effect of “that was a terrible audition and I apologize, but as you can see I am a woman in love and very distracted” - and the love she speaks of there, that was the real love, the one that made her realize all the other loves were fake loves, for whom she dumped her two young children with a local teen for the day to go fishing (it was pouring rain) and hang out in the pub until she got back from driving for two hours to meet him at a hotel with a closed bar. When she got back her children were angry with her for leaving them for so long, so she bought them things to make it up to them. Her love for her children is actually pretty obvious, but her passion and spontaneity mean that she neglects them. Not even for work - if it was just that, I would have sympathy because she needs to work and acting requires long hours - but for passionate loves and wild adventures. I think she loves loving and being loved, but the mundane every day of cultivating and maintaining it bores her. She speaks frankly and (as always) passionately about the daughter she gave up for adoption, but less so about the sons she raised. She speaks of meeting her daughter for the first time as being a wonderful and heartwarming experience, and it was beautifully written. She thanks her sons in the book's acknowledgements, and then extra-thanks her daughter. Having never been pregnant let alone either raised a child or given one up for adoption, I can only guess at how it must feel, but how must her sons feel as she continually left them in the hands of the nanny or babysitter or their father to work and play, all the while pining after the daughter she gave up.

In all - I love her work, she's a talented actress, passionate about life, and I would love to drink with her one day, but I don't think we could be friends.