3.55 out of 4 stars.
A long-winded comeback for Drew Barrymore. Well, a successful return in my eyes at least.
It feels like a distant memory when Barrymore once stood on the stage of David Letterman and flashed him for his birthday. Flash (a different kind) forward decades later to nowadays and she is a married and a mother of two. The difference? She has now figured herself out and become grounded. No easy task when your own mother was taking you to Studio 54 at the tender age of 12.
“Little Girl Lost” was Barrymore’s first book she wrote and it focused on all those dark years of drugs, alcohol, promiscuous affairs, and finally emancipation from her mother at 14. Truthfully, not my kind of book. I would imagine myself reading it and feeling sick to my stomach that she had to go through Hollywood without direction or proper guidance. More importantly missing out on a childhood. I know, I know call me a grandma but I mean, c’mon! Poor thing. This is why I call her latest book, “Wildflower” the comeback kid. It is if Barrymore is literally kicking the bucket on her old life through her new stories she is presenting and showing the world how she is a whole new woman.
Of course these two different lifestyles didn’t occur at a blink of an eye, it took her decades to make this change and maybe that is why there are years between her first book and now this latest release.
She didn’t want to call “Wildflower” a memoir because that seemed too serious in her eyes. Which I think sums up her personality entirely. She lives her life as a go-getter, witty, funny, and goofy person but never folding to The Man. All the publishers wanted her to call it a memoir because that sells more copies but Barrymore likes to play by her own rules and does what she feels comfortable doing. If anyone disagrees she says in her sweet voice, F* you! Her words not mine!
My only request was if the stories were more in chronological order of when they happened. It was difficult for me to string along each chapter and figure out her age or her location because they were jumbled out of sequence of events. For example, one chapter would be on Charlie’s Angels and the next would be giving birth to her second daughter. In the middle would be a story about her mother from when she was little. I guess that is all part of her charm though; keeping you on your toes! Just embrace it.
Please pick up this book whether you are or not a fan of her acting work. She definitely surprises you with some aspects of her life that I did not not know about; i.e work within the U.N. and becoming an ambassador of the program. All around a pleasant and lovely book that got me wishing I was friends with her. Surprisingly enough it took her being further away in age to me to really want to spend time with her. As they say 40s are the new 20s!
Here is a picture of Sparky finishing up this book:
