My Life So Far

Fonda covers her accomplished public life (two Academy Awards) while also showing how her addictive personality caused her to make life choices which hindered her own long sought desire for self-fulfillment. The book is not flattering but shows her attempt to accept her many flaws. These flaws would be glaring and almost unimaginable to most American women.
I read this to weigh her opinion of her Hanoi misadventure. She still maintains that she has no regrets over having gone to protest the war, just regrets about being a “novice” revolutionary who was miscast as wanting the US to lose the war and wanting “us” to be killed. She does regret having the photo taken on the AAA site wearing a helmet. She does regret that her actions show more appeared callus with regard to U.S. soldiers. There are other statements she makes that strain credulity. She says that she did not cause anyone to be tortured, that torture had stopped by 1969, and that torture was not the policy of the North Vietnamese government. A large number of U.S. POW memoirs will say that these statements were false. The POWs speak about the torturers saying that they (the POWs) were receiving “lenient treatment” for their crimes, as they were being tortured. She claims the CIA, FBI, NSA and DIA all had files on her after her trip.
Strangely enough, I found Fonda’s book interesting even as I felt sorrow for her shallow understanding of her personal situations. She says, for instance, how impressed she was that Ted Turner rewrote the 10 commandments! She also wrongly believes that the gnostic gospels were written during the formation of the New Testament canon. However, I salute her desire to live a life of searching for her own spiritual connection to God, even if it did imbalance a marriage she enjoyed. This is a book especially for women, and women interested in self-empowerment. show less

A surprising book. I knew a little bit about Jane Fonda when I started listening to the audiobook so I had a lot to learn. It's always nice to dismantle pre-conceived notions you have of who you think someone is based on the tiny sliver you see of them via media.

The most interesting parts of the book, for me, were when she talked about her activist experiences, particularly when talking to veterans. The Waterbury story was really interesting.

I found that the last 10 minutes of the audiobook, which Fonda read, thank goodness, were really insightful and I wish she had written more. Of course, it may be that at that time in her life, she was starting a new chapter and maybe that will continue in another book!

It's fascinating to me that show more someone who had such a strong voice in her career, acting roles and activism could shrink so much in her personal life. But I do think that's common so I wasn't surprised per see. I was intrigued and wanted to know more about her life after her relationship with Ted Turner was over. I could have listened to many more chapters on that and on Fonda herself and what she learned. I want to know more about how she found her voice and how she used it.

I'm really glad I read this book. I often wished I had a hard copy so I could underline certain poignant passages, especially toward the end of the book, when Fonda briefly touched upon patriarchy, gender roles and feminism.

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TW: Sexual assault, one brief mention of animal abuse, wartime violence, trauma in childhoods. show less

Finished May 5, 2005

The Lord knows His own. More properly, I suppose, He knows everyone, but I mean by my opening that He uses that which is part of our personal being to reach us -- His methods individualized for each one of us.

On several imporant occasions in my life He has conveyed His mesasge to me via books -- books which I had no intention of reading, books which I assumed beforehand would be either stupid or fluffy, or both.

That is the case with this one. I idly read the book jacket flaps while waiting at Borders to have coffee with a friend. It interested me enough to get a copy out of the library. Then i saw Jane on The Actors' Studio and was blown away by her honesty, and her experience of life as a repressed woman.

Her show more wounding childhood and the weakness to which many women are prone, that of non-self-confidence, produced a person who continuously shut down her own self and her true voice in order to get or to retain love and approval

I was stunned to find this to be true of a woman I had peceived to be strong, outpsoken, talented, rich and beautiful. And, most important to me, she began to look for and to choose her own voice when she was 60.

So, while not great literature, this book is an honest, moving, encouraging, and enlightening account of struggle and search. I liked it well enough to buy two copies, one for me and one for my daughter.

I have also been struck by the great quotations Jane uses,and have purchased several of the authors she recommends.

Happily surprised, I have both enjoyed and benefited from a book which I initially perceived as the autobiography of a movie star, something in which normally I would have no interest at all. show less

The aura of Jane Fonda as an actor, and an activist, a feminist, and a wife, a daughter, a workout guru, a role model and a soul of style and struggle is as bright as a big star. One of the most loving and inspiring account on how much life can be packed in 60+ years. My Life So Far by Jane Fonda is about woman living a remarkable life on the pages of extraordinary intimacy and private truths. My favourite biography.

Not an elegant, literary writer but a forceful, honest one. Some readers may not take to the digested self-analysis served up by Ms Fonda but I took it in the same vein that I think it was given - the desire to be honest about her life and the meaning she has made of it.
Made me want to go and watch all her films.

A well written and interesting tale that became tedious at times because of the author's tendency to ramble. At 584 pages it was far too long. With some slick editing this would have been an excellent read as the content especially around the Vietnam conflict time was most interesting.

Although, I am not a huge fan of Jane Fonda's I find her book very interesting and engaging. I ordered the book out of curiosity and am glad I did. Her childhood does explain (but not excuse by any means) her actions and attitudes as an adult.