Audiobook Review: Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair
Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair
Narrator: Selma Blair
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: May 17, 2022
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.
Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.
Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
Geez Louise – Selma Blair has had a hard life. The title of her book comes from that when she was an infant, her face supposedly looked scrunched up into an angry stare and everyone called her Mean Baby. It seems it became a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.
I didn’t know very much about her before reading her book. Really, all I knew is that she had been fairly recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She’s also a recovering alcoholic and was sexually assaulted several times. And her mom! She seemed like a very cold and often cruel woman. She constantly criticized Selma and said the most horrible things to her. Selma is the youngest of four girls and was a surprise baby. I don’t remember the exact quote but when Selma was a child, her mom said something to her to the effect of, “You know, I could have had an abortion but I didn’t.” And yet Selma loved her and was desperate for her approval.
The entire book was tough to listen to. Selma narrates it herself and chokes up at several points. And I don’t blame her. Her alcoholism is probably sprung in part from self-medicating not only to forget about her mother and other problems but also because she suffered from painful physical symptoms for years before she was finally diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The book’s timeline was a little jumbled but that didn’t bother me too much. I knew from reading reviews before I read it that it wasn’t going to be a fun, tell-all Hollywood memoir. Know that and read it when you’re in the mood for something more serious. It’s very well-written. Selma studied writing before she became an actress and it shows. Recommended.
