The World, According To Mary-Louise Parker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           And what a world it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                           When Miss Parker walked into my life, as I watched her running to catch a bus in Manhattan, yelling, "Hooooold it!!!!!!," I instantly saw her as someone I could relate to, as I had been there, myself. In every thing I have seen her in, there is always some moment, where something her characters do connect with me.  Like when she admits she wrote the equation in "Proof;"I thought of how many times I had done things but wasn't able to explain how I did them.  I just knew how. Or I visualized.

                                              So, when the book appeared, I thought, "Oh, now she is writing a book. Really."  But once the word started pouring in, and with all the focus on the "Cabdriver Chapter," I
thought, if I admire Miss Parker as much as I say I do, I ought to read her book.

                                               Before going on, let me say, that during my early days of discovery, I would wonder if she was related to Sarah Jessica Parker, or the heiress to the Parker Bros. game company, or to the Jane Parker, cake and bread and rolls company of the 1950's.  Well, the book makes clear she is none of these.

                                                She is complex and indomitable.  Let me say that while I knew all about the "Cabdriver Chapter," before I read it, and it did take me to a time in my life, when I was trying to cab it back to my apartment in Woodside, and the cabdriver did not know where we were going, with both of us becoming more hysterical, to the point of me accusing him of kidnapping, and he wanting to drop me off at a police station!  I kid you not; I was hysterical. Somehow--and I do NOT know how--I did make it home, that night.

                                                    What was fresh and engaging to me was, brilliant as she is, Mary-Louise has her own way of doing things, which resulted her getting probation her first semester, at the University Of North Carolina School Of The Arts, where is she now is their most distinguished graduate.  "A Chorus Line" was right.  We all, no matter how brilliant, have our own Mr. Karp.
More interesting than the "Cabdriver Chapter," was the way on Cerberus. I want to know who this was--one guy, or three different guys, or a guy with three distinct personalities.

                                                       Both Mary-Louise and I are youngest children, which means we have standards, darling, and they had better damn well be met.

                                                        Let me add, her writing is as lyrical and incisive as her acting. Over the years, rumors have surfaced about her wanting to give up acting, which I hope she does not do, but I also hope she writes more, because I want to read what she has to say.

                                                           I have never read a more moving chronicle of adult children facing the passing of a parent--their father--than the way Miss Parker writes.  It took me back to that time when my mother was lost to us, 37 years before.

                                                            Which is to say this is not some celebrity tell-all. This is a woman revealing herself as another human being among so many of us.  She just happens to write and act brilliantly.

                                                                Thanks for sharing, Mary-Louise.  I look forward to more!!!!!!!!!!