Mean baby : a memoir of growing up /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * Selma Blair has played many roles: Ingenue in Cruel Intentions . Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde . Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best as ... a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.

"Blair is a rebel, an artist, and it turns out: a writer." --Glennon Doyle, Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Untamed and Founder of Together Rising

The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention.

Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.

Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair's Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Mean Baby I'm not sure how to harness my meandering thoughts into words and sentences that make sense. So I'll start with what I know. We are all in search of a story that explains who we are. As Joan Didion wrote, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." We are made not only by the stories we tell ourselves but by the tales of others--the stories they tell us, and the stories they tell about us. The first story I was told about myself--other than the one about how my mother watched as the doctor pulled me out from her insides--is that I was a mean, mean baby. I came into this world with my mouth pulled into a perpetual snarl. I was born with a glower, my face defined by a heavy brow that adults coveted. But on a child--an infant, no less--my face looked judgmental, scrutinizing. No one knew quite what to make of it. When I arrived home from the hospital, only one of my three sisters, Katie, who was five, was waiting in our driveway. Mimi, aged twelve, and Lizzie, almost two, were elsewhere. Katie rushed out to meet me, my mother holding me on her lap. Katie asked if I was a baby doll for her. No, I wasn't, my expression said. A few days later, some of the neighborhood kids came over to meet the new Beitner child. Within minutes, they left screaming, warning any-one who would listen, "Do not go over there. The Beitners have a mean baby." Can you imagine! Have you ever heard an infant described in this way? What could I have done? I was just days old! An infant with a snarl. I only wanted someone to pick me up, I think. Or put me down! But instead they all went and gossiped. From the very beginning, I was misunderstood. Nevertheless, the label stuck, as labels are wont to do. What people call you does matter. The words we use hold weight. We say this sometimes, as lip service, but it's true. It's like having a sticker affixed to your back that the rest of the world can read but you can't. Before I could even speak, I was told who and what I was. I was mean. In my defense, I did not have a proper name for the first few years of my life. My birth certificate reads, simply, "Baby Girl Beit-ner." In babyhood, I was given the nickname Baby Bear. My mom said they called me Bear because I had such a furry head that they would have to rub it to make way for my forehead. (I used to feel bad about this bit of my history, until I read that Rene Russo was born with the same affliction.) Eventually, my family started calling me Blair--after Blair Moody, my mother told me. A U.S. senator and circuit court judge from Michigan whom she admired. This was funny, because I was so moody. (To this I say: Be careful what you name your kid!) I remember being a Blair, because they would all spell it out when-ever they talked about me, as though I wouldn't piece it together. "B- L- A- I- R was mean," or "B- L- A- I- R wants to come." This continued until I was three, when I went to preschool and needed a legal name. My mother decided to name me Selma, after her much-adored friend who died around the time I was born. In the Jewish tradition, babies are never named after a living person, and this seemed like a fitting tribute. The other names in conten-tion were Ethel, Gretel--which I would have liked--Marta, Mar-tha, and Gwyneth. (Gwyneth! To think, I could have been one, too!) There came a point where I loudly proclaimed, "When am I going to get one of those names?" referring to my sisters' nick-names of Ducky, Precious, and Princess. I wanted a pretty name. But it was not to be. From this point forward, I was Selma Blaire Bear Beitner, though my mother eventually removed the e from "Blaire," because she said it was "too pretentious." And there you have it. For my entire life, I have been both. Selma and Blair. My two names would come to define me, as much as the stories around them. As a child, I never took to the name Selma. It seemed to me an old lady's name, not a name befitting a little girl. When given a choice, I always asked to be called Blair, but I got a real boatload of "Selma" in elementary school. Whenever the teacher did roll call, I was too shy to ask, "Can you call me Blair?" So all day long I was Selma, or Bat Sheva, the Hebrew name used by the teachers at my Jewish day school, and at home I was Blair. Mom was always sorry I didn't like Selma. A feminine of Saint Anselm, the Benedictine monk. Or a reference to Selma, Alabama. It was a good name, she often reminded me. When I was five years old, Mom, Dad, and I went on a weekend trip where I struck up a friendship with a family with a baby. As we lounged poolside, the mother asked my name, and I casually replied that it was Lisa--a nice, normal name. As Lisa, I played with that baby for three hours, helping her navigate the hotel pool in her floaties. When the afternoon sun sank low in the sky, the woman approached my mother and told her that her daughter Lisa had been so helpful. "Lisa!" My mother let out a wail. "Her name's not Lisa! What a crock! What a liar!" The woman looked at me as though she were seeing me for the first time. My lovely afternoon had been erased. I was no longer Lisa, and now I was a liar as well. My mother nicknamed me Saintly, but it was tongue in cheek. I was no saint. I could sometimes be saintly to my mother, but to everyone else I was a mean baby. Growing up, I shared a bedroom with my sister Lizzie, since we were closest in age. Our parents let us choose the wallpaper, and since Lizzie didn't care, I picked a pattern with little pink and blue flowers floating against white. I chose it because it looked similar to what Jessica Lange describes as her childhood wallpaper in the movie Tootsie. Movies, even then, were what gave me ideas and hope. Our room had two twin beds and those vinyl shades you needed to tug in order to pull them up or down. Every morning, I got out of bed very, very quickly. I had never been one to linger. (Can you believe it?) I rushed to pull the shade down, so it would snap to attention and rip-roll up loudly, sending the diffused morning sun straight into Lizzie's eyes. "Yehi or!" I'd yell at the top of my lungs, quoting from the first lines of Genesis, the Hebrew words for "Let there be light!" "Blair!" she would croak, rubbing her eyes. "Why do you do this?" Next I made my way around the room, throwing open the door, turning on the television atop Mom's childhood maple dresser, her mother's before her, and flicking on the lights. I needed life, imme-diately. I needed every bit of everything, every bit of help, anything I could reach in order to cheerlead myself into embracing my day. Even then, I did this. This was how our days began. I made Lizzie crazy. But she put up with me. Every night, we said good night back and forth until one of us fell asleep. She was always there with me. Excerpted from Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up by Selma Blair All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Actor Blair revisits in this bold and candid debut her odyssey through addiction, trauma, and illness. Born in 1972 in Detroit, Blair was labeled as a "mean baby" for the "judgemental, scrutinizing" look she perpetually wore. As she reveals, this pained expression would seemingly foretell the fraught childhood and adolescence to come--from binge drinking throughout her youth to escape hurtful put-downs from her mother ("How can you be so beautiful from one angle and so ugly full face?") to suffering depressive episodes after being sexually assaulted in ninth grade by her school's dean. Later, after a suicide attempt in college, she was raped during a spring break weekend. Blair's recollections are harrowing, but they affectingly set the stage for a story of triumphing over one's afflictions as she chronicles her path to becoming an actor. After months of struggle in her early 20s, Blair landed an agent and went on to star in Cruel Intentions (1999) and Legally Blonde (2001) before having her first child and, years later, receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2018. Nevertheless, Blair, in her typical fashion, finds a way to transform her burden into an opportunity, sharing her experience of living with MS with astounding candor and grace. This compassionate and intelligent work will leave fans floored. (May)

Booklist Review

Actress Selma Blair always thought of herself as a sidekick or character actress, never a leading lady, but in this illuminating and authentic memoir, she takes center stage as the teller of her own story--something rarely afforded to a child relegated to, and decidedly living up to, the role of "Mean Baby." Young Selma wants nothing more than her mother's approval, but she resorts to bad behavior after instead receiving her mother's taunting--laughing at Selma's fright from watching a scary movie, or calling her award-winning poem drivel. Alcohol becomes a coping mechanism starting at a young age, and something Blair will continue to struggle with for years. What she doesn't realize for decades is that she likely used it to cover up issues relating to MS, a diagnosis she receives in her forties, when she also learns that doctors believe she may have been battling the disease for twenty years. The book's first and third parts, covering her childhood and her MS diagnosis (along with the birth of her son), respectively, are spellbinding. While the middle section that follows her career lags at times, it does little to take away from Blair's compelling story and remarkably good writing.

Kirkus Book Review

An acclaimed actor reflects on her life, film career, and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2018. Born outside of Detroit in 1972, Blair earned the nickname "mean baby" for the "judgmental, scrutinizing" expression she wore on her face from the day she was born. In fact, she was a "sensitive soul" who felt judged by others--in particular, her demanding, sometimes-cruel mother. At 7, Blair developed a taste for alcohol at a family Passover celebration and drank in secret after that, reveling in the feeling of "safety" alcohol gave her. She also suffered awful abuse. "I have been raped, multiple times," she writes, "because I was too drunk to say the words 'Please. Stop.' " A troubled teen, she continued to take refuge in drinking but also discovered a passion for literature and drama. After a suicide attempt in college, Blair found her footing in acting. She moved to New York City, where, after a year of struggle, she found an agent and landed her first movie role. Drinking and toxic relationships took their tolls, and she entered rehab in Michigan before moving to Los Angeles. An unexpected invitation to play a role in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions brought her fame. However, the binge-drinking continued, as did a series of unhealthy relationships (one of which turned into a short-lived marriage) and mysterious pains that racked her body. "I could feel it growing and spreading," she writes, "but I had no idea what it was." Single motherhood helped her curb drinking, but her fatigue and neuralgia intensified. A lifelong spiritual seeker who sought out psychics to help her make sense of her life, Blair finally received an answer to explain the physical roots of her pain: multiple sclerosis. Though the narrative occasionally meanders, the author offers a sharp, memorable account of her roles as celebrity and MS advocate that will have wide appeal to both fans and general readers alike. A moving and eloquent memoir. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

SELMA BLAIR is an actress best known for her roles in Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions, The Sweetest Thing, and Hellboy. Blair was named a Time Person of the Year in 2017 as one of their Silence Breakers, and she was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her narration of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. She is the subject of the documentary Introducing, Selma Blair, which reveals Blair's intimate and raw journey with multiple sclerosis. Blair lives with her son in Los Angeles.