BOOK REVIEW: FINDING ME by VIOLA DAVIS

 

About:

In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.

This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.

My Thoughts:

No words....

I rarely read memoirs, but Viola Davis is one of those actresses that I have always admired and boy oh boy did she have a story to tell. I am glad I listened to the audiobook because it was narrated by her. What an experience I had listening. I laughed, I cried, I even reflected on my own experiences.

What is amazing is learning about how many obstacles Viola had to overcome in her life; poverty, abuse, domestic violence, neglect, everything imaginable. Sometimes we feel as if we could never rise above our problems, we whine and complain about everything. Viola is a great example of a woman with immense strength, someone who kept pushing even though many doors were shut in her face.

What I liked too is the fact that she stressed that becoming an actor should not be about the fame, that it should be an outlet to express oneself, it should be about the art. I really admired her advice for young actors. This book really is going down as one of my favourites for 2022.

I recommend this one to everyone. It is a really good memoir.