This is an interesting book; Mariel is as usual honest about her family troubles and her own ways of dealing with them (I mean how can a book with the name Hemingway be boring) and her books are always "good reads" but at the same time I was baffled because she has done a complete 180 from her two previous books "Finding My Balance" and "Healthy Living from the Inside Out" which I reviewed (see below) and gave five stars because she seemed to have conquered her past demons and found a mind/body connection that I personally found inspiring. She found the Zen in changing sheets. I don't mean to to sound patronizing but it sounded like she was able to get pleasure in all her pursuits and I got pleasure from reading the book.
So I was amazed to read that her marriage to Stephen Crisman was basically troubled from the day she walked down the aisle with him. This wasn't even alluded to in the books I mentioned; neither was the frustration she had with her career ups and downs.
Take the case of "Basic Instinct." Michael Douglas wanted her but Paul Verhoeven wanted Sharon Stone whom Mariel dismisses as a "TV actress" forgetting or misleading people with the fact that Stone was in Verhoeven's "Total Recall" (which Marial actually mentions so presumably she saw it) and then spreads what I thought was really mean-spirited gossip that Stone had slept with Douglas, Verhoeven or someone at the studio to get the part. No, Sharon Stone got the part because she was damn good in "Total Recall" and for a "spiritual person" -- Mariel's comments about Stone were jarring. Mariel also doesn't think that Sharon Stone was good in "Basic Instinct" while many critics think she was the best part of the movie. I agree with them.
Let me say that I love "Star 80" and I loved Mariel's acting in it but I feel despite the nudity in the movie, Mariel Hemingway is not intrinsically a sexy actor and Sharon Stone intrinsically is. That's not meant to be an insult; I don't feel that Meryl Streep is an intrinsically sexy actor yet she's probably the best there is.
During the tribute to Woody Allen at the Golden Globes (with great tweets from Ronan and Mia Farrow during the event), Mariel misses the fact that "Blue Jasmine" is actually Allen's scathing revenge against Mia Farrow and not "a Woody flavored version of Blanche DuBois" (huh?) and how did Mariel miss that having known and worked with Woody?
Back to her personal life. As their marriage is breaking up and in their first counseling session, while Mariel is denying Stephen's accusations aloud...she's admitting to us that he's pretty much spot on which isn't how marriage counseling is supposed to work. Honesty is supposed to be the key and she takes very little responsibility for the problems in their marriage. Her career wasn't what she wanted it to be, she was dismayed when she got pregnant the second time and the woman who practiced yoga (and started off each chapter in "Finding My Balance" with a yoga pose) is a far cry in this book from the woman who cured all her ills with diet, exercise, meditation and mindfulness.
Are we just supposed to look at her first two books from the rear view mirror now and dismiss them as the Mariel she wanted to be as opposed to the Mariel she really is? I hope that she and Bobby last; if they don't...her next tell-all might find him in the same position her ex-husband Stephen Crisman finds himself in this book.