by Jane Fonda
Edition: Hardcover
Great pains make great women, May 11, 2005
Because of parental detachment, she grew up with immense emptiness. She dismissed her grandfather's desire to earn living away from the "make-believe" world of acting, mother's advice not to marry a musician, father's antithesis to competition and awards for actors, and neighbor's advice not to use dirty words. Such dismissals brought great pains into her life. She plunged into the degenerate society of histrionic artistry, married amoral drunkard moviemaker, and put academy awards ahead of marriage, maternity, education, and religion. Her good instincts inspired her to transform personal pains into universal humanistic activism. Her father's disdain for injustice and racism had long been ingrained into her genes and reinforced with his worldly fame and iconic stature. When she tried to escape her father's shadow and her own insecurities by moving to France for six years, her father's image and values were reverberating among the French activists. Those had mentored her on distrusting politicians, antiwar activism, and progressive social changes. She returned to America in 1968 to fight the government deception on the causes and conduct of Vietnam War and the political manipulation of the public by intimidation, sabotage, and fear. The Nixon's government went to prison in 1974 and she stayed free to make more movies, invent a whole new industry of workout for women, and found organization to help young women prevent early pregnancy. Like a candle that burns to illuminate the dark, she incurred life long insecurity and anxiety, ruined three marriages, dumped her two children on nannies and ex-husbands, hid her bulimia and drug abuse from others, yet took historic stances that bride America in its brave, humanistic, and intelligent citizens. She went to Hanoi during the war and shared bunkers with the Vietnamese during the American bombing of North Vietnam. After six decades of struggle for identity, she sought spiritual guidance in the Church, yet her good instincts and bravery led her to discover the endemic plaque of hierarchal patriarchy that corrupt religion, demean women, and discriminate against believers of other faiths. The book is briefly summarized as follows. Act One: Gathering Resilience. Chapters 1 thru 5 describe her early memorization of her parents, from childhood till their divorce and her mother's suicide. Chapter 6 thru 8 describe living with her new stepmother, her high school years and introduction to bingeing and purging, Dexedrine addiction in college. It ends with her escape to Paris searching for meaning and avoiding her father's shadow. Chapters 9 thru 14 describe her early engagement in acting through private classes with "Lee Strasberg" that resulted into starting his film and play acting in 1959 and entered the artistry society, where she met the French movie director Vadim, married, had a girl child and played in few movies. Second Act: SEEKING Chapters 1 thru describe her return from France to America in 1968 after learning about the American atrocities in Vietnam from two books "The Village of Ben Suc" and autobiography of "Malcolm XIII her divorce thoughts, touring the GI coffeehouses in protesting Vietnam War, and the Winter Soldier Investigation about atrocities that the government claimed to be isolated incident of aberrant behavior. Chapters 8 thru 14 describe her turning into America as a new person mentored by Tom Hayden about the Vietnamese people, history, and culture, her solo visit to Hanoi during the American bombing, being framed as anti-soldier, traitor, anti-American, remarrying and having a boy child, and getting the idea of the story "Coming Home" from dealing with Vietnam veterans. A love scene in that movie upset Tom and ruined her marriage. Chapters 15 and 16 describe her starting of exercise business in order to support her second husband's campaign for office and her disappointed by his rigidity and ingratitude for her role that angered her and led her seek liberation. Chapters 17 thru 20 describe her transformation in acting after antiwar activism in the form of environmental activism, defending women rights in work place, her father's final days, and the effect of acting on her psyche, family, and society. Chapters 21 thru 25 describe her divorce from Tom and remarriage to Ted Turner. Although she felt "unseen" because of his indifference to what was not himself, yet she moved south to Atlanta and followed Ted. That engaged her in global issues such as the role of educating women in birth control, which she implemented in Georgia. Yet, giving up her career and idling for 10 years with unfaithful lover gave her the sense of emptiness and homelessness and led to her yearning to spirituality. Act Three: BEGINNING Chapters 1 thru 3 describe her transformation after becoming grandmother, which led her seek liberation from womanly victimhood, her reliance on books and people during hardships, and her search for spirituality, not tradition or dogma. God bless her bravery.
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