You want revealing? Try Here's the Story, the memoir of every male Gen-Xers first crush, Maureen McCormick (aka Marcia Brady). Not content to tiptoe through the cutesy flirtations of life on the set of "The Brady Bunch," McCormick begins with her struggles to dispatch the Marcia character and the very real pain her mother carried all of her life, and passed on to her only daughter.
After crushing on just about every guy she mentions in the first half of the book, including her "brother" Greg, McCormick craters into a crippling cocaine addiction that only the Lord and the accountability of her church could rescue her from. She married a guy who should surely rank as one of the most patient and dedicated men on earth, who endured her rages and bouts with depression.
The book is an incredibly revealing look at the pressure this young woman put on herself to be perfect like Marcia and the hole she put herself in when she couldn't measure up to her own standards. Trying to break the Marcia mold and have a successful acting career was also a challenge. Here's the Story is quite a journey, moving quickly through her personal struggles and the flits of her career and into her marriage. Just about the time she got things figured out, she suffered through the death of her mother and the strange behavior of her brother who turned her aging father against the rest of the family.
A satisfying read for Brady fans or for anyone who's struggled with depression, bulimia, drug abuse, anger, or elder abuse--she's seen it all. Not the highest quality of writing, but very serviceable.
On a final note: I had this memory that I'd started to doubt: Maureen McCormick's appearance in an early-80's Christian movie I saw at summer camp. We were all convinced "Marica" was a Christian. Turns out, she really did make the movie I had banging around in my head... and had become a Christian. Though after her conversion in the early 80's, her faith doesn't get much mention through the remaining 20-plus years of her story.
Interesting!
Posted by: Karen | April 08, 2009 at 12:04 AM
Did you have a crush on Marcia? I couldn't decide between Greg or Peter.
Posted by: Susan | April 11, 2009 at 03:16 PM