cover image I'm Over All That: And Other Confessions

I'm Over All That: And Other Confessions

Shirley MacLaine. Atria, $22 (218p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0729-1

In this breezy new volume, the 76-year-old actress catalogues some of what she can no longer tolerate. MacLaine (Sage-ing While Age-ing) is not concerned with what she should not do, for instance, and has a distaste for the hassles of airport travel and government. "I am over everything that involves politics. What happens to me spiritually is far more important to me now." She has stopped being polite to boring people, and she's over fame for fame's sake. "Fame is a false god. Talent and hard work are not." Flipping the switch, MacLaine also documents many of the things she cannot get over. She still likes good journalists, appreciates her own personal history, and notes performers with whom she has worked in decades past, recalling experiences with Alfred Hitchcock, Dean Martin, Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, and others. These stories of Hollywood's past are among the most engaging. When the topic turns inevitably to metaphysics and religion, previous lives and reincarnation, the book's appeal narrows. Those who like MacLaine no matter what she believes in will find nothing wrong; less fascinated fans won't be so easily won over. (Apr. 5)