Though we christen it with a name and imbue it with godlike powers to manipulate events, Fate is nothing more than a human construct to explain the improbable and to soften up, for us, a deeper, more difficult truth. Life can turn on the smallest moments. The flight we didn't catch, the meeting we couldn't make, the promises we failed to keep... All of life's hiccups have the potential power to deprive us of vital opportunities while, perhaps, throwing up others in their place. After all, as much as we may disappoint some people with our failings, our mistakes may cause us to encounter lifelong loves who have the power to make us grateful for our foibles. Though one senses that Ms. Lynch is being far too modest when she credits this particular chaos for the good that has come to her, downplaying the depth of her own talent and determination, she has assembled some startling examples of just how much a life can change when one is least expecting it.
Born to affectionate parents of modest means, Jane Lynch spent much of her formative years firmly ensconced in the white-bred traditionalism of the American midwest which, for a child of the 70s, endowed with a theatrical spirit, was a poor match. She was a dreamer, fixed on fame and fortune, living in a world that insisted its youth foreswear the risks of Hollywood stardom for the safety of a quiet, unremarkable life. Slaving away in a department store simply was not going to cut it. Her exclusion from this community was only enhanced when, as a teenager, she realized she was gay, a secret she'd feel forced to conceal for years to come until stints performing in New York, Chicago and L.A. imbued her with the confidence to be herself.
Finding herself less than a match for society's standards of beauty, success was fleeting for Ms. Lynch early on. Her earliest victories were limited to appearances in commercials and on the small-time comedy stage. But when one such commercial hurled her into the orbit of Christopher Guest, an award-winning director of feature films, her fortunes dramatically shifted. Suddenly, she was in a movie, a serious actor who would go onto feature in numerous big-screen comedies before finding ultimate and lasting success on Glee, a hit launched in 2009 with Ms. Lynch as the show's sharp-tongued villain. Along her journey, she acquires friends, allies, pets and a wife, all while seemingly leaving little by way of acrimony in her wake. This is a worthy achievement for anyone, let alone one who has reached for and grasped the stars.
Though Ms. Lynch keeps her readers at arms length, Happy Accidents is a fun romp through the world of a struggling performer, the soul cursed with many things to say and with no one to listen. She communicates with clarity the ups and downs of her profession, thrilling in its victories without ignoring the powerful loneliness of its failures. She leaves the reader cheering her on when she finally earns lasting success. But despite Ms. Lynch's winning charm, we are never truly allowed inside her world, or her head. The author is frank about her struggles with alcohol sparked by hiding herself in the Closet; she is open about her personal foibles which have lead her to push people away; she even includes a few anecdotes that must have been difficult for her to reveal to perfect strangers and perhaps she considers this enough sharing. But there is always a reserve, a protective veneer, a smile forced to hide what lies beneath, that is tangible throughout and prevents the reader from fully embracing the subject.
It must be painfully difficult for an intensely private person to confess her life's secrets, but these are why autobiographies are written, so that their writers can work through their own history and so that their readers can feel as though they understand what lies behind the public masks of people they will probably never meet. To the extent that Ms. Lynch conveys her warmth, her charm and her lovable flaws, she is, here, eminently successful. But to the extent that she allows us to know her, to understand her,she leaves something to be desired. On balance, a worthwhile read that left me wanting good to come to a kind-hearted person who worked hard for her achievements. (3/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment