A behind-the-scenes look at how a Hollywood insider survived in daytime television despite the pain of living with rheumatoid arthritis.
When TV makeover expert and fashion consultant Schwab (The Grown-Up Girl's Guide to Style: A Maintenance Bible for Fashion, Beauty, and More..., 2006, etc.) was diagnosed with arthritis at a relatively young age, she learned to hide her debilitating pain to maintain an image of physical and professional perfection. In doing so, Schwab lied to everyone in her life including her supportive husband, experimented with myriad combinations of medications and ducked out of public responsibilities, including a hasty exit from the Academy Awards on swollen feet. Weaving in unpleasant tales from her childhood, the author works through the issues that led to her compulsion to appear flawless, regardless of the cost. “Being neat and clean with my outfits matching were lessons that served me in my childhood and my career,” she writes. “But when disease struck, arthritis marched over everything, not caring what it destroyed.” After seven years of faithfully taking failed pharmaceuticals despite visible, toxic and even life-threatening side effects, her dedication to the process paid off and she found one that worked for her, enabling her to continue her career and lifestyle as before. While the conclusion may seem superficial with its abrupt happily-ever-after, Schwab's book unexpectedly serves as an interesting observation of the pharmaceutical industry and the doctor-patient relationship. But the author's also tuned into the cravings of her audience, and doesn't skimp when offering the inside scoop on daytime TV: the reckless process of TV makeovers, how to schmooze a producer and the wonders of Oprah. An inspirational alternative to People at the doctor’s office.
Pub Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61608-264-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
A forceful examination of women who find in their 40s and 50s a psychological growth hormone to replace lost estrogen. Apter (Working Women Don't Have Wives, 1993, etc.) chose 80 British and American women between the ages of 39 and 55 for this study, interviewing and observing them over approximately four years. Although most students of women at midlife choose 50 as a point of departure, Apter believes it is in their 40s that women begin to reassess their lives and their choices. Her subjects are classified into four role types: the traditional, who tend to cast themselves as mothers, wives, helpers; the innovators, career women pioneering in the working world of men; the expansive, who break away from past patterns and set new goals; and the protestors, who try to harness powerful adolescent energy constrained earlier by circumstance. What all these subjects have in common is an urge at some point in their 40s to reevaluate their lives, first with alarm, then with resignation, and finally with determination to face change and take risks. As a result of these internal, often unvoiced struggles, subtle shifts in attitude may herald dramatic revisions of lifestyle, like turning down a long-sought law partnership, or more delicate fine-tuning of personal relationships. The introductory chapter is an outstanding synopsis of the new context in which women find themselves: a society that still renders women over 50 invisible, but in which those very women are filled with energy, hope, and a willingness ``to construct a new self and a new future.'' Apter tends to dismiss menopause as a midlife marker, ignoring the fact that it may trigger the painful but rewarding process of reappraisal that she describes. For middle-class women over 40, a sometimes eloquent, always readable mirror of their struggle to come to terms with growing older in a society still oriented to youth and beauty. (Author tour)
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-393-03766-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
Here is Passages II, an upbeat, fact-filled, people-rich, but ultimately unsatisfying sequel to the 1976 bestseller. Sheehy's earlier Passages borrowed from Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson of Yale to popularize the theory that the lives of adults as well as children are marked by stages of development, such as the Trying Twenties and Catch-30, until age 50, when it's smooth sailing. Well, Sheehy is in her 50s now and encountering some rough waters, so she's added a few more stagesthe Flaming Fifties, the Uninhibited Eightiesto her earlier scenario. Moreover, she declares, ``There is a revolution in the life cycle.'' Puberty arrives sooner, and adolescence lasts longer. ``First Adulthood'' begins around 30, segueing into ``Second Adulthood,'' which lasts from about ages 45 to 85. During that time, women struggle with menopauseand perhaps, she suggests provocatively, so do men. Both reframe their lives, women pushing the envelope on their careers and men often confronting corporate downsizing. Age 50 is also fraught with crises of mortality and meaning, giving passage to the Serene Sixties and Sage Seventies. Throughout are rich interviews with both working class and white collar/professional men and women copingnot always successfullywith the stresses of growing older. The flaw in this book lies in the very reason Sheehy wrote it. Labeling generations (``Silent,'' ``Vietnam,'' ``Endangered'') and relabeling Erikson's Age of Generativity as the Age of Integrity mask the fact that life cycle changes are happening so fast that it's too soon to develop a perspective. Sheehy's confidence in the efficacy of exercise, a healthy lifestyle, and an optimistic attitude to hold back the effects of aging is well placed. But these constitute only one step in combating society's aversion to people with wrinkles and walkers, to say nothing of the millions of elderly living below the poverty line. A mix of inventive speculation and solid informationon impotence and menopause among the latterbut its impact is diluted by horoscope-like predictions and (though Sheehy surveyed thousands of people) a penchant for presenting anecdote as evidence. (Author tour)
Pub Date: June 21, 1995
ISBN: 0-394-58913-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1995
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