I like celebrity autobiographies. However, I can't remember how I came to have this one. Never a 'Brady Bunch' fan and particularly not a fan of 'Marcia Brady', I ended up reading this book when I was incapacitated after surgery. I think I tend to think of characters in shows that I don't really care for, as the same in real life. Unfair, yes, but I think it is also human nature.
This book was quite an eye-opener. Maureen McCormick who played the perfect Marcia Brady on the show had a very different life. Haunted from an early age to live up to the perfection of the character, she was also dealing with difficult family issues. The fear of mental illness that she had been told was hereditary. The desire to 'fit in' with normal people that never seemed to happen, and the descent into the world of alcohol and dangerous drug addiction.
Fighting substance abuse most of her life, this story is told with honesty and a poignancy that I didn't expect. Although she does tell of backstage drama and insight to the other actors on the show, this is a book about one woman's fight to break the chain of substance abuse. It is also the empowering story of learning to let go of the idea of perfection and learning to love herself for who she is today.
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