Book: “Mean Baby”
—| B2-C1 (upper-intermediate to advanced) |—
Photo courtesy of GoodReads.com.
WHAT TO LEARN:
“Mean Baby” by Selma Blair is a non-fiction work of literature belonging to the memoir genre. It covers vocabulary related to growing up, relationships (mother-daughter, sibling, friendship, dating, marriage), love and romance, purpose, desire, addiction, grief, mental health, healing, Multiple Sclerosis, motherhood, fashion, and so much more…!
REVIEW:
—| C1-C2 (advanced to fluent) |—
Book reviewers and readers often say that it is such an odd feeling to rate a memoir. As if doing so is rating another person's life. Deeming whether the events that have accumulated in that person's time on earth have been interesting or mundane. The latter of which would inevitably make the author a boring person with a boring life. But such an understanding would be void of the fact that memoirs are not the same as its biographical and autobiographical counterparts.
A memoir does not simply list the chronological events in one's life. It pulls together the true story of an individual of humanity. Of human experience. The human condition. It explores a singular theme that connects the psyche of the reader to that of the author. An adventure of psychological proportion and comprehension that is self-awareness–both of the subject in question and its presumed bibliophile. This is, to say the least, what constitutes a well-written memoir. One that adheres to the parameters of the literary genre. One which Selma Blair evidently understands.
From the beginning of her book, Blair paints a picture of mature consciousness. It is an image that depicts a baby girl growing up into womanhood, unable to escape the label that she has been given since birth. It follows the story of that same child, yearning for her mother's attention and approval, though in her adult reflection she maintains that this desire, despite its innocence, was unhealthy, and her mother's responses, despite her love for her, toxic. With a variety of literary references speckled throughout the work, it is clear that Blair possesses the understanding of humanity best described by American poet Walt Whitman: "Do I contradict myself? / Very well then I contradict myself, / (I am large, I contain multitudes.)".
It is these multitudes from her mother, reflected in herself, that she offers up for witness through her story of struggles: self-acceptance, identity, purpose, addiction, grief, healing, diagnosis, motherhood. And though these struggles are not what creates a picture of ideal beauty, the authenticity, admittance of imperfection, honesty about self-improvement, and thereby relatability of her voice, of her experiences, lend themselves as the vibrant hues on the palette of a great artist, painting.
One does not need to be a fan of Blair to find enjoyment in her book. Instead, one must simply be willing to acknowledge the fragility of one's own humanity, the ebb and flow of our condition, and the beauty it all presents through our learning, our healing, our carrying onward. Through moving upward.
QUOTATION:
“As I gaze through the lens at a life’s worth of moments, a plate of Barilla spaghetti and a reprimand from my beloved sister are seemingly unimportant, but it filled in my heart from such a young age. This was one of my first introductions to shame. The same shame would keep coming as years went on. There was a whole system, I saw, that wasn’t about being good or even just being. It was about authority, with rules we are not born knowing. If this was how the world worked, I was in for a rough ride. We don’t know what stains a pure heart. We may not remember all those times, when we follow the wrong woman in the grocery store and reach for her hand and feel the red-hot shame for this understandable error. By the time we reach adulthood, we are so accustomed to being here that we forget how big everything used to be. The trespasses that to us seem light once felt like life and death.”
Are you familiar with Selma Blair’s work? Where have you seen her from? Let me know in the comments below.
