My Life So Far

My Life So Far
by Jane Fonda

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Book Summary Information

Author: Jane Fonda
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-05
ISBN: 0375507108
Number of pages: 624
Publisher: Random House

Book Reviews of My Life So Far

Book Review: Fascinating, Educational and Infuriating
Summary: 5 Stars

First of all, this is an exceptional book that everyone of our generation (I'm 51) should read. Jane is a fascinating person who was fortunate to lead a public life in very interesting times. She has made an honest effort at laying her soul in view for you to see and there is much to learn from this, both good and bad.

First, the most controversial subject, Vietnam and Hanoi Jane. Fonda gives a detailed description of her side of the Vietnam controversy where she believed fervently the USA was in the wrong. Clearly, this was a bad war in which we should not have participated. However, as much as she quotes from the Pentagon Papers and tells of her meetings with soldiers who changed their mind and now understand she position, it still doesn't feel right to me to openly oppose America and cavort with the enemy IN THEIR COUNTRY. I had no real opinion of her on this issue and took no real offense to her visit. Now, reading her side of the story, it just doesn't feel right to carry demonstrations to the enemy's country and flaunt your position. She tries to justify that she wasn't speaking against the soldiers, just the administration. She tries to build a case that the POWs that said they were tortured due to her visit must be lying because others said they weren't tortured. Disagreeing with America is an Americans privilege. Disagreeing while in other countries borders on treason to me. Even she earlier admitted while in France that it felt inappropriate in a foreign country to demonstrate against her country.

But it's not that black and white an issue. Jane makes very good points of why she disagreed and where all the administrations, Republican and Democrat, lied to the public. In my life this is the biggest controversy in our country for this generation. I respect and honor our soldiers. But I also respect and honor Jane Fonda's right to disagree and protest the war. But there is a limit to where the damage is too great. And an apology for sitting on an Anti-aircraft gun doesn't quite cover the damage in my opinion. You will learn a lot of the specific issues that so inflamed her particularly apparent secret bombing of dikes. Form your own opinion but don't let this critical part of the book lessen your enjoyment of the whole book.

Now, to fascinating book parts that are not as controversial. She describes the initial idea of the controversial film "Coming Home", the first major film to deal with Vietnam and the emotional trauma. Reading the evolution of how the film started and evolved is fascinating and I applaud her and her producing partner Bruce, director Hal Ashby, and fellow actors Jon Voight and Bruce Dern on a cinematic masterpiece. And specifically, Jane, thanks for the story behind the scenes on how this masterpiece was made.

And this applies to "On Golden Pond" also. Dare I say maybe the ultimate cinematic accomplishment of our generation? How many Americans my age watched this movie and cried at the touching human story portrayed by some of the greatest actors ever! The back story of Katherine Hepburn is nothing short of fascinating as Jane takes us inside what a real actor is like and how Hepburn both helped her and fought her. This movie is really a synopsis of the relationship of Jane and father Henry's relationship and how wonderful is it to have this raw emotion splayed on the screen!

I'm not just a movie lover as I found the history of her marriage to Tom Hayden fascinating. It just goes to show that what you see in public is not what goes on in all relationships as her "storybook" marriage disintegrates before her eyes. Her famous exercise videos are also covered in depth showing how it slowly started, how she hurt relationships to have the business finance her political causes, and the extent to which it becomes enormously profitable.

For most of this book we have an extreme left-leaning privileged actress who lives her life in a fascinating manner. But in her 50s she's hit by a tornado from the south, Ted Turner, a man that clearly would not be considered a feminists first choice. But this is where the book is even more appealing as this avowed Democrat who admits to not being around religious people unless they were Jewish, suddenly is thrust into a life in the deep South around conservative, Christian people. Maybe the greatest statement I can make of Jane is that unlike a lot of people, many of who will read this book and dislike it, she learned from these new friends and altered her life completely becoming an advocate concerning teenage pregnancy and a devoutly religious person. Life is to be learned from and this later chapter of her life shows that she was willing to grow and continue to learn. I find it fascinating that after living around New York, Los Angeles and France, she has chosen to make Atlanta her home!

I've left out so many parts of this book that are enjoyable like parental skills, her childhood and first marriage. She left out many parts such as any discussion of her romance with Donald Sutherland and I'm sure there are many others. How many Americans knew that her left-leaning, while learned from her father, were cultivated in the six or so years she lived in France in her 20s? Or the fascinating story of how the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane" is made to demonstrate our society living above its means in the 70s?

This is a magnificent book of growing up in the last half of the 20th century. I applaud Jane for allowing me to learn from her, even when I may strongly disagree with her stands. Read this book with an open mind and learn about Jane Fonda, American values, and who you are and who you can be.

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Summary of My Life So Far

She is one of the most recognizable women of our time. America knows Jane Fonda as an actress and an activist, a feminist and a wife, a workout guru and a role model. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, Fonda reveals that she is so much more. From her youth among Hollywood?s elite and her early film career to the challenges and triumphs of her life today, Jane Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths that she hopes ?can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently.?

Fonda divides her ?life so far? into three ?acts,? writing about her childhood, first films, and marriage to Roger Vadim in Act One. At once a picture emerges: a child born to the acting legend Henry Fonda and the glamorous society princess Frances Seymour. But these early years are also marked by profound sadness: her mother?s mental illness and suicide when Jane is twelve years old, her father?s emotional distance, and her personal struggle to find her way in the world as a young woman.

By her second act, Fonda lays the foundation for her activism, even as her career takes flight. She highlights her struggle to live consciously and authentically while remaining in the public eye as she recounts her marriages to Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, and examines her controversial and defining involvement with the Vietnam War. As her film career grows, Fonda learns to incorporate her roles into a larger vision of what matters most in her life?and in the process she wins two Academy Awards, for Klute and for Coming Home.

In Fonda?s third act, she is prepared to do the work of a lifetime?to begin living consciously in a way that might inspire others who can learn from her experiences. Surprising, candid, and wonderfully written, Jane Fonda?s My Life So Far is filled with universal insights into the personal struggles of women living full and engaged lives.

One of the most recognizable women of our time, America knows Jane Fonda as actress, activist, feminist, wife, and workout guru. In her extraordinary memoir, Fonda divides her life into three acts: her childhood, early films, and first marriage make up act one; her growing career in film, marriage to Ted Turner, and involvement in the Vietnam War belong to act two; and the third act belongs to the future, in which she hopes to "begin living consciously," and inspire others who can learn from her experiences. Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths that she hopes "can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently."

Exclusive Letter from Jane Fonda

Stay in Shape: The Jane Fonda Collection
New Workouts

The Complete Personal Trainer Series
The Complete Workout and Stress Reduction Program
Fun House Fitness: Fitness for the Whole Family

Jane Fonda: The Essential DVDs

Barbarella
On Golden Pond
Nine to Five
Coming Home
Klute

See more Fonda DVDs

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