Kendall Hailey

I'm embarrassed to have read this as it was so atrocious. Let me explain: I flirted with becoming an autodidact when I left high school after my freshman year and I half-hoped to find a kindred exploration of the joys of self-education. How wrong I was.

This is a whiny, choppy, pretentious, and, most damningly, boring journal of a thoroughly unlikeable teenager. I was hoping for a light & breezy paean to self education. Instead, it's just a diary, and an utterly dull one at that. Really, I show more think Ms. Hailey should have gone to college: her uneducated readings are shallow (she hates Beowulf because it's violent) and her life is painfully sheltered and privileged and utterly devoid of any meaningful experience. It's almost funny how Ms. Hailey continually proclaims how her real life has begun, what fantastic experiences she's having, while all the while she's just lolling about in her parents' house playing at being an artist, actress, writer, and reader but really just subjecting any hapless reader to her protracted adolescence. If anything, this book is a testament to the beneficial aspects of college--Ms. Hailey's self-educated mind would probably have been a more interesting place to spend some time if she'd've gone. I can only assume that nepotism (both of her parents are writers) got this published as it has no redeeming literary qualities and absolutely no interest as a biography. show less

This was a reread of a book I read when it was first published. Hailey was in her early 20s, I was in my late 30s, but it spoke to me because I feel like an autodidact in spite of having spent years in school. For me, school was a long series of nice suggestions on what I wanted to explore next. Making good grades wasn't generally a problem for me unless I was bored stupid, which happened maybe three times in my grade and high school years. I'd go off and do my thing, and stop paying any show more attention to my schoolwork, fail a bunch of stuff, get a stern talking-to and go back to making at least a minimal effort. Most of my friends fit into this category to some degree or other. Some did well in school and enjoyed it, some tolerated it, but all of us seem to learn best on our own.

Hailey's decision to leave school early was made with the support of her parents, a novelist mother and a playwright father. It certainly wasn't my situation, and when I first read the book, I envied her that. I followed her attempts to educate herself with glee, enjoyed her insights, and made notes about books I really really should be reading as well. (Hailey did some heavy classical lit reading.)

This time around, I saw her from a greater distance, separated by 30 years from my younger self, I found I was impatient with her judgements, the way she flitted from one career dream to the next, and the thread of her unrequited love for a family friend. I kept having to say, "Tracy, she's a kid, lighten up!" That rational voice was quite correct. She was a kid, a smart, sassy one, who was so passionate about the world that she wanted to experience it via every art she could think of. She was a kid so much of the time she was certain she knew how things had to work. She was a kid, so of course she was in love.

I don't know what I was expecting.

But when I did lighten up, I found the same delight in her progress that I had nearly 30 years earlier. I enjoyed her thoughts and observations on what she was reading, her efforts to write novels and plays, become an actress and photographer, and to get Matthew to declare his love for her. She counts their kisses! Yes, she has it bad, and occasionally she'll step back and think, "What am I doing?" But her resolutions don't last.

Hailey writes so winningly, not only about her self-education, but of her family, that I felt I'd come to know them all. Father Oliver's struggle with Parkinson's, uncle Tom's eccentricities, mother Elizabeth's process as a novelist, and Nanny's and sister Brooke's hilarious weirdness. They're the heart of Hailey's book, even more than the path she's choosing to walk. This time around I feared for her because, having lost people I adored, I knew how hurt she was going to be when the same happened to her.

I'm glad I chose to revisit this book though I doubt I will again, unless I live another 30 years, and consider it an anniversary of sorts. Revisiting books you loved when you were younger can be dodgy. This one held up, thank goodness. If you love the idea of self-directed education, if you like smart young women with a bit of sass on them, this book may well appeal to you. show less

I read this book soon after college and loved Kendall's take on life, on learning, and pretty much everything. Like her I had a complete set of Will Durant's Story of Civilization (still do!), but I had no great compulsion to read them start to finish.

Still, her adventures in self-education were wonderful and her prose was a delight to read. I wanted so badly to converse with her about so many things she mentioned in the book. (Where were the interactive social web sites back then when I show more could have used it?) I eventually wrote to her, and, much to my surprise, she wrote back asking about my wife: "Who is this woman and how did she find you first?" I was happily married but flattered to no end that someone who wrote as well as she did would respond to my letter that way. After a few more letters, we lost touch.

Reading was always enjoyable to me, but a bit weird to some of my friends back then. Kendall's book -- heck, her whole outlook, spirit, and enthusiasm -- inspired me to keep reading and experiencing life regardless what others thought of it. And I have.

I still read voraciously. I still have Kendall's book on my shelf. And I still hope she'll publish another some day.

Find more of my reviews at Mostly NF show less

This book reads like a teenagers diary and for that and most of the content I was disappointed. What was she teaching herself? I can't help but wonder if her book was published because of 1. who her parents were at the time, because what has she done since then? and 2. all the name dropping she did in the book of who they were friends were. People who would have been termed has-beens. (a term of the time and the area)
She did come across as a typical spoiled child of certain areas in L.A., show more jetsetting to Paris, or England for summer vacation.
There were very few nuggets of good writing in the book that I found myself reading it just to finish it. One such nugget: pg262 I am writing about education and this is the first time I have mentioned the SAT's, which shows you exactly how much I think they have to do iwth education. However, they have too much to do with...college. (she was talking about her crush's ordeal with the SAT's).
This book would be good for teens. show less