Then Again [Hardcover]

One of Diane Keaton's favorite films is 'Something's Gotta Give'. A film that costarred Jack Nicholson and was written and directed by Nancy Meyers. It was a film that gave her joy, friendship, money and love. It seems to me that the title is reminiscent of Diane and her journey and her life. Her mother, I think, would understand all too well.

Diane Keaton has written such a marvelous book. It is filled with her memories, and as one of her mother's quotes said 'Memories are simply moments that refuse to be ordinary'. She tells us of her life, growing up with her mom, Dorothy, and her dad, Jack. Her two sisters and brother. She was the oldest. Diane Hall never thought of herself as pretty, something seemed a little bit wrong, but when you look at her pictures as a teenager and young woman, she is breathtaking. That was part of the problem. As a young woman she was asked to lose weight to get a better part in her first Broadway play, 'Hair'. She learned as time went on that she could binge and vomit and maintain a very slim form. It took years of therapy, but she learned to stop-Bulimia- she just did. Mom, Dorothy, loved to make collages, and all of the children followed suit. This book from Diane is her collage, most often it is a love story to her mother, but then again, it is a love story to her children, her friends, her lovers, and to herself. Born as Diane Hall, when Diane became an actress, she learned there was already a Diane Hall, so she became Diane Keaton after her mom's side of the family.

Diane talks about her life as an actress, interwoven between the loves of her life, Woody Allan, Al Pacino and Warren Beatty. She never married because it seems her loves were not interested in marriage at the time when she was with them. As time went on and films come and go, and her dad dies, she decides she needs to take risks. One of those risks is adopting a baby girl at the age of fifty. Diane, of course, falls in love with Dexter and within a few years, Duke comes along. She gives us stories of their babyhoods and growing into teenagers. She loves being a mom, and since the most important person in her life was her mom, she pays homage to Dorothy Keaton Hall. Dorothy left eighty-five journals and months after she died, Diane started reading them, and they have become part of this book. We learn to love Dorothy as Diane did. The book is a collage, bits and pieces of Dorothy's life that lead into Diane's life. Easy going and heart breaking at times. The homage to mom will bring tears, her Alzheimers, her last illness, the death watch and finally her death. We have the full monty of Dorothy Hall's and Diane Keaton's lives. It has wisdom and love and life's joys intermixed with the reality of everyday life.

Diane Keaton writes after her mom's death, "It all boils down to one thing. One day you end up having spent your life with a handful of people. I did. I have a family- two, really, well, three if you think about it. There are my siblings and my children but also an extended family. The people who stayed, the people who open the door when I knock, not because they always want to, but because they do." There that says it all, and as Diane Keaton says, 'Then, Again'.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 11-17-11

California Romantica: Spanish Colonial and Mission-Style Houses

Something's Gotta Give

Diane Keaton, one of the most eccentric and wonderful stars of our time, has almost totally neglected to give us a gossipy Hollywood autobiography, and instead has produced something far more interesting.

Keaton starred in some of the most iconic movies of the seventies: Annie Hall and the Godfather, for example. And she went out with Woody Allen, Warren Beatty AND Al Pacino too. So you'd be expecting a book that would illuminate those famous characters, perhaps? Yet the most remarkable incident from the whole filming of the Godfather is that Marlon Brando complimented her on her figure (way less politely).

Instead, we find Diane leafing through the diaries of her mother and printing out excerpts, from Diane's Oscar ceremony to reflections on marriage and loneliness. Diane's mom is a person with whom you become transfixed as you read the book. Mom Dorothy Hall wrote endlessly, made collages, wrote down resolutions, analysed her own shortcomings and struggled with the meaning of life as a mid-California housewife in such detail that the book becomes completely compelling. It's like reading the diaries of the Kate Winslet character from Revolutionary Road... She was a wonderfully honest person - so honest it's often painful. Poignant and extraordinary. I began to long for the next bit of Dot's diary, hurrying through the showbiz Diane bits, to the next section of Dot of worrying over children, home and husband.

Diane Keaton is one of the most unique stars there is, and now she has made a sort of star of her mother too; what an unusual but wonderful book.

I don't normally go for celebrity autobiography but this is an exception.
I admire Diane Keaton and she doesn't disappoint.
At the heart of it is her relationship with her mother which she uses
as the springboard to talk about all of her life.
I love how she used her mother's diaries juxtaposed with her own life.
She strikes me as an authentic person and this book proves that.
You can tell there was no ghost writer - it is her own voice.
She doesn't resort to the lowest common denominator.
It was entertaining but also dealt with universal truths we all must
face at some time and in our own way.