I would have liked more introspection, but I loved spending time in Kendrick's funny, honest, often wonderfully wacky point of view.
In the early chapters of Scrappy Little Nobody, Kendrick does a great job of positioning herself outside Hollywood in the naive mindset of her youth. She wasn’t savvy to how show business worked, nor did she (nor her parents) particularly aspire to become members of an in-the-know stage family. She knew she wanted to act and sing and dance, and she knew these activities felt necessary to her. She retraces her missteps and successes as well as her humble beginnings. I loved all of this.
Her own confusion and astonishment is endearing as she explains how she figured out the way various aspects of show business really work. There's an appealing "Can you believe this? Me either! I'm down to earth and just like you!" tone that she carried through the first stories in the book, especially. (I can’t get over the story of young Anna taking the bus from Maine to New York City with her brother and all that ensued.)
The anecdotes shared later in the book veer into largely silly territory. I would have liked a little more reflection and introspection, but to be fair, that’s not really what Kendrick seems to have set out to offer the reader here. I loved spending time in her funny, honest, often wonderfully wacky point of view.
Any Bossy thoughts on this book?
Have you read this one?
I love some Anna Kendrick (and not only because I also have a friend named Anna Kendrick, and not only because the celebrity Anna Kendrick is from Maine).
I listened to this as an audiobook—I like to listen to people read their own memoirs—and I loved hearing this in Kendrick's voice.
I mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I’m Reading Now, 11/25/20 Edition.