Saturday, December 25, 2010

It's Always Something by Gilda Radner

I've always loved Gilda Radner. Her time on Saturday Night Live produced some of my favorite sketches. I choose to read her autobiography to learn more about her life. Radner started writing this book after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer so much of the book is about her dealing with the cancer. It was really hard to read at times. I knew the ending to the story but Radner was so upbeat about getting better and living 50 more years that it sometimes was too much.
Radner is not the best writer. Most of the time the stories were more like long letters to a far away friend. I enjoyed some of the stories about her childhood and when she first came to New York, but most of them wound up relating to cancer somehow. It was much more the autobiography of Gilda's struggle with cancer than about Gilda's life. It was a bittersweet story. She was such a bright comedic actress and she left a wonderful legacy with her characters and with Gilda's Club. Her story definitely had me crying at times. Her strength and her commitment to beating cancer so others could too was so touching. I'd recommend this to Gilda fans as well as those who's lives cancer has touched.

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