First published 2015
Candice Bergen opens her heart about the transformative relationships that shaped her adult life. She chronicles her marriage to French director Louis Malle, whose zest for living expanded her world despite his periodic struggles with depression. Bergen describes discovering an overwhelming maternal bond with daughter Chloe after years of uncertainty about having children. As Chloe matures, Bergen achieves television stardom playing Murphy Brown in the defining sitcom of the 1980s, unexpectedly becoming a political lightning rod when Vice President Dan Quayle criticizes her character during the 1992 election. The memoir confronts Malle's cancer diagnosis fifteen years into their union and Bergen's raw grief following his death. After extended mourning, she experiences the surprise of new love and remarriage. Bergen reflects on watching Chloe launch her independent life while she battles the ordinary indignities of aging. Writing with humor and unflinching honesty, Bergen transforms celebrity memoir into intimate friendship.
Genres: family-life, autobiography, contemporary, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: France
Period: 1980s, 1992
368 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: depression