Synopses & Reviews
Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she'd collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.
So begins Diane Keaton's unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals — literally thousands of pages — in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane's grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother — a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents — as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.
More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.
Review
"A far-reaching, heartbreaking, absolutely lucid book about mothers, daughters, childhood, aging, mortality, joyfulness, love, work and the search for self-knowledge... Between its many glimpses of Ms. Keaton at different ages, its telling of Dorothy's story and its loving portrait of Dexter, Ms. Keaton's teenage daughter, this book manages to present the full spectrum of women's experiences, from babyhood to adolescence, youthful insecurity (and secret bulimia) to liberating adulthood to slow, lingering death. Its power as a collage has been greatly enhanced by tight, punchy editing of the fragments that Ms. Keaton variously writes or excerpts. Some of its stories are universal and painful, yet this book is not mired in melancholy. Instead it's inspiring in its empathy, wisdom and self-knowledge." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"For anyone looking to join one woman's — albeit a famous woman's — touching and funny journey into the vortex that is the parent-child relationship, Then Again features an especially honest tour guide." USA Today
Review
"This book feels like Diane Keaton. Which means it's lovable." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"A poignant and deeply moving memoir." Huffington Post
Review
"Although peek-behind-the-curtain moments are delicious — Woody Allen! Warren Beatty! Jack Nicholson! — the best parts of the book have nothing to do with Keaton's considerable star power. At its heart, this is a manuscript about a mother and a daughter, with insights and confessions and lessons to which all readers can relate." The Wall Street Journal
Review
"As warm, funny, and self-deprecating as Keaton's onscreen persona... [Then Again] traces a profound dramatic arc: that of a young woman coming into her own as an artist, and of a daughter becoming a mother." Vogue
Review
"Then Again reads like the diary of an ordinary woman who suddenly became a movie star, who doesn't quite believe any of it happened, but it did." Los Angeles Times
Review
"[An] insightful, often poignant memoir." Houston Chronicle
Synopsis
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Janet Maslin, The New York Times - People - Vogue
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
--Financial Times - Chicago Sun-Times
The Independent - Bookreporter
The Sunday Business Post
Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she'd collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.
So begins Diane Keaton's unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals--literally thousands of pages--in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane's grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother--a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents--as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.
More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.