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Undiscovered
Celebrated for her indelible, Oscar-caliber performances in some of the most memorable films of the 1980s and 1990s, Debra Winger, in Undiscovered, her first book, demonstrates that her creative range extends from screen to page. Here is an intimate glimpse of an artist marvelously wide-ranging in her gifts. In fact, as this beguiling book reveals, Winger is that rare star who dared to resist the all-consuming industry that is Hollywood becoming her entire reason for being. "I love the work," she states, "and don't much care for the business." Yet she cares deeply for the people who have inspired her. We meet them (most famously, James Bridges, Bernardo Bertolucci; most dearly, her mother, husband, and sons) here, as Winger passionately makes her case for forging a life beyond acting -- and shows how she has done just that. Winger's screen performances have long been celebrated for their breathtaking emotional range, a quality that shines through in these pages. "When I was little," she writes, "someone told me that when you age, you turn into the person you were all your life." In this intriguing mix of reminiscence, poetry, storytelling, and insightful observation, a portrait of a life well-lived is strikingly rendered.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
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94 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 12, 2010
In the "What was I thinking category." Really unreadable. Like she published her incoherent diary.
January 29, 2010
Oy, Debra, what were you thinking?
Debra Winger is a wonderful actress, and a very skilled writer (that is why this book got two stars instead of one) but this book, though well written, is bizarre (and not in the good way). I suppose it is supposed to be a memoir but it is really just rambling and masturbatory. There are a few, very few, good sections. I particularly liked her passage about aging, as well as the passages concerning the death of her mother. But I just didn't get what the purpose of this book was. Every couple of pages there is a poem which reminded me of the poetry I wrote when I was 15. Please, Debra Winger, if I wanted a book of poetry, I would have bought a book written by a poet, not a movie star. And every few pages there is a drawing of a door. Various doors throughout the world, on different types of buildings. Did Debra Winger draw these pictures? They're well done, if she did. Or if she didn't.
As far as learning about anything to do with being a movie star/actress, there's zilch. "An Officer and a Gentleman" is never mentioned. "Terms of Endearment" gets one paragraph and it concerns a press junket. When she does, on rare occasion, relate some film related anecdote, it is impossible to know what film or what people she is talking about. "A director on a movie I once did..." What director? What movie? And for some strange reason, she refers to her husband, Arliss Howard, as A. and her sons by their first initials as well. And her first husband, Timothy Hutton, is called, only, her first husband.
I love all sorts of celebrity autobiographies. It is rare for me to find one that doesn't engage me. But I found one!
Debra Winger is a wonderful actress, and a very skilled writer (that is why this book got two stars instead of one) but this book, though well written, is bizarre (and not in the good way). I suppose it is supposed to be a memoir but it is really just rambling and masturbatory. There are a few, very few, good sections. I particularly liked her passage about aging, as well as the passages concerning the death of her mother. But I just didn't get what the purpose of this book was. Every couple of pages there is a poem which reminded me of the poetry I wrote when I was 15. Please, Debra Winger, if I wanted a book of poetry, I would have bought a book written by a poet, not a movie star. And every few pages there is a drawing of a door. Various doors throughout the world, on different types of buildings. Did Debra Winger draw these pictures? They're well done, if she did. Or if she didn't.
As far as learning about anything to do with being a movie star/actress, there's zilch. "An Officer and a Gentleman" is never mentioned. "Terms of Endearment" gets one paragraph and it concerns a press junket. When she does, on rare occasion, relate some film related anecdote, it is impossible to know what film or what people she is talking about. "A director on a movie I once did..." What director? What movie? And for some strange reason, she refers to her husband, Arliss Howard, as A. and her sons by their first initials as well. And her first husband, Timothy Hutton, is called, only, her first husband.
I love all sorts of celebrity autobiographies. It is rare for me to find one that doesn't engage me. But I found one!
November 22, 2009
I fell in love with Debra Winger in her movie roles. Authentic, real, beautiful, raw, and intense, she hooked me as an actress. She's all that and more in this delightful memoir. Part poetry and part short snippets and glimpses into her life, she talks about her career, but from the inside. She's extremely intelligent, sensitive, and delightful in her honesty. I'd like share with you just this short paragraph about motherhood. It literally brought me to my knees. Dead on. Well done, Ms. Winger. Encore.
"Irrevocably imprisoned by a crush of immense responsibility, overwhelming and oppressive; and by a delayed upsurge of love that in the interim had grown so encompassing and so completely consuming that she knew that no matter how long she lived, no matter what she did or how, she would never ever be free again. She was a mother."
"Irrevocably imprisoned by a crush of immense responsibility, overwhelming and oppressive; and by a delayed upsurge of love that in the interim had grown so encompassing and so completely consuming that she knew that no matter how long she lived, no matter what she did or how, she would never ever be free again. She was a mother."
August 6, 2008
Just checked this out of the library and am only a few pages into it. I'm impressed so far. I will have to say that I am surprised, because I remember that Debra Winger had a "reputation" of being difficult to work with. But after I saw her, briefly, on The View, and saw this book, I think the label was not exactly deserved. Or rather misunderstood.
But she has sketches, poems and other stuff in the book too, at least so far. She also includes a snippet from "Shadowlands", a really good movie with her and Anthony Hopkins about CS Lewis and Joy (can't remember her last name)
will write more on this later!
But she has sketches, poems and other stuff in the book too, at least so far. She also includes a snippet from "Shadowlands", a really good movie with her and Anthony Hopkins about CS Lewis and Joy (can't remember her last name)
will write more on this later!
July 26, 2008
I bought this book after seeing Debra Winger on The View. I always liked her - she always seems so direct. To me, this book is perfect in its construction. I read it while I was still in shock from my mother's death, so I know that I merely skimmed the surface of the words. I intend to go back and re-read it with more attention. I love its construction though - poetry, stories, reflections - separated by beautiful drawings. If you're looking for a chronological exploration of her life, this is not the book for you. If you're looking for a glimpse into another person's heart and soul, then I think you'll find it here.
March 4, 2010
If your looking for a "tell all" this is not it -- thankfully. It's much more thought provoking and, for one in the midst of "questioning" the direction of her life, strangely reassuring. I have always appreciated Debra Winger's significant acting talent -- this book clearly demonstrates she is also an intelligent and talented writer. Hope she decides to do more (both on screen and via the written word.)
June 5, 2023
Unequal parts memoir, meditation, therapeutic journal, wordplay, reflection, with an ambling quality and more than its fair share of inside baseball with unexplained reference points, the strength of this book is the warmth and wry wit of Winger, known for her excellence as an actor.
This is a quick and easy read: an assemblage of reflective episodes that do at various points reveal the distinctive flavor of her voice, inexperienced in writing though it be. It's a sort of chicken-soup book. It does feel like her voice.
I became interested in Debra Winger after watching Legal Eagles, a 1986 romantic comedy in which she steals the screen opposite Robert Redford in a clever Ivan Reitman film. There Winger plays a whip-smart, funny, warm, beautiful defense attorney. You fall in love with her on the screen. I am pretty sure I must have seen this movie when I was a kid, at least parts of it, but watched it fully as an adult in 2023 on Netflix.
There are actors who produce moments of great accessible resonant "authenticity" where you feel you are together with them, in on the joke. Not exactly a breaching of the fourth wall, but a sense of relatability and identity, as though you really know them beyond-and-through the character they portray. They share moments that feel truly to be who they are, not the production of a character but the sharing of a human being. Because these remain produced and edited moments as viewed on the outside, for the audience it remains forever uncertain how much trust to invest into this non-relationship (or rather, one-way relationship observing/accepting/consuming what is put on screen) but nevertheless, sometimes, you really feel that kinship with a performer through their performance. In many cases, though not all, these people seem to exude such magnetic and broad appeal that this capacity is leveraged to some level of stardom or celebrity. You feel affection and interest in them. That was how I felt after watching Legal Eagles and so investigated Winger's filmography and also found she had written this book, which I borrowed from the public library.
It was published on the strength of the pitch of this star who had removed herself from Hollywood to live her life on her terms. In her words, "I love the work and don't much care for the business." If it were you or I writing this book, it would not be published because we do not stand on a significant platform that sells books describing the loss of our parents, the turmoil of our careers, loves found and lost, children nurtured, tending gardens, tender sadness, moments of serendipity, moments of confusion, and all the minutiae of life internal and external. For that, there is unremunerative (mostly unread) blogging. That is not to say this book is unworthy, just to say what it offers is that of a human being sharing thoughts on her life. These may be as profound or mundane as the reader makes them. This is not a tell-all.
Though at times they feel like she is writing for a therapist, Winger does offer some memorable or meaningful summations or ponderances that possess the same kind of broad magnetic appeal as her on-screen presence:
"I often wonder if the brain's very nature is to keep us from acknowledging our other sources of strength, a ruler, tyrannical to the point of debating religion, acts of faith, and trust from the heart. All these issues can be found in the smallest of gardens" (61).
"We are full of undisclosed fear, unexpressed resentment, and a feeling that there will be a time in the future when we will get to it" (112).
"Take a shooting star, for example. How can so much romance be attributed to a dying thing?" (151).
"I learned a while ago that all you really need to know about a person's state of being can be revealed by how they mow" (123).
Perhaps the strangest yet most intimate episode shared is the author stopping midway through cutting her grass. She gets off her riding lawnmower because, she writes, it is too loud. After a meander--"In suburbia one can start making love every time a leaf blower is fired up. If you know suburbia, this is a real fine suggestion" (125)--(which seems to have sexual politics implications for her relationship with her husband which are never explicated but remain suggestive), she goes into the barn to get her husband's rusted scythe and continues mowing in relative silence, engaging her body in the rhythmical work.
"Any successful marriage takes a devotion to irony that borders on Zen" (125).
I came away from this book feeling that what I observed onscreen in the 1986 performance was indeed genuine, as the elements of personality that shone through felt congruent with the voice narrating Winger's memoir. So, for someone expressing that she has sought to create authentic performances, even though the term has become vastly overused these days, in that sense this book felt "authentic."
As does Winger.
This is a quick and easy read: an assemblage of reflective episodes that do at various points reveal the distinctive flavor of her voice, inexperienced in writing though it be. It's a sort of chicken-soup book. It does feel like her voice.
I became interested in Debra Winger after watching Legal Eagles, a 1986 romantic comedy in which she steals the screen opposite Robert Redford in a clever Ivan Reitman film. There Winger plays a whip-smart, funny, warm, beautiful defense attorney. You fall in love with her on the screen. I am pretty sure I must have seen this movie when I was a kid, at least parts of it, but watched it fully as an adult in 2023 on Netflix.
There are actors who produce moments of great accessible resonant "authenticity" where you feel you are together with them, in on the joke. Not exactly a breaching of the fourth wall, but a sense of relatability and identity, as though you really know them beyond-and-through the character they portray. They share moments that feel truly to be who they are, not the production of a character but the sharing of a human being. Because these remain produced and edited moments as viewed on the outside, for the audience it remains forever uncertain how much trust to invest into this non-relationship (or rather, one-way relationship observing/accepting/consuming what is put on screen) but nevertheless, sometimes, you really feel that kinship with a performer through their performance. In many cases, though not all, these people seem to exude such magnetic and broad appeal that this capacity is leveraged to some level of stardom or celebrity. You feel affection and interest in them. That was how I felt after watching Legal Eagles and so investigated Winger's filmography and also found she had written this book, which I borrowed from the public library.
It was published on the strength of the pitch of this star who had removed herself from Hollywood to live her life on her terms. In her words, "I love the work and don't much care for the business." If it were you or I writing this book, it would not be published because we do not stand on a significant platform that sells books describing the loss of our parents, the turmoil of our careers, loves found and lost, children nurtured, tending gardens, tender sadness, moments of serendipity, moments of confusion, and all the minutiae of life internal and external. For that, there is unremunerative (mostly unread) blogging. That is not to say this book is unworthy, just to say what it offers is that of a human being sharing thoughts on her life. These may be as profound or mundane as the reader makes them. This is not a tell-all.
Though at times they feel like she is writing for a therapist, Winger does offer some memorable or meaningful summations or ponderances that possess the same kind of broad magnetic appeal as her on-screen presence:
"I often wonder if the brain's very nature is to keep us from acknowledging our other sources of strength, a ruler, tyrannical to the point of debating religion, acts of faith, and trust from the heart. All these issues can be found in the smallest of gardens" (61).
"We are full of undisclosed fear, unexpressed resentment, and a feeling that there will be a time in the future when we will get to it" (112).
"Take a shooting star, for example. How can so much romance be attributed to a dying thing?" (151).
"I learned a while ago that all you really need to know about a person's state of being can be revealed by how they mow" (123).
Perhaps the strangest yet most intimate episode shared is the author stopping midway through cutting her grass. She gets off her riding lawnmower because, she writes, it is too loud. After a meander--"In suburbia one can start making love every time a leaf blower is fired up. If you know suburbia, this is a real fine suggestion" (125)--(which seems to have sexual politics implications for her relationship with her husband which are never explicated but remain suggestive), she goes into the barn to get her husband's rusted scythe and continues mowing in relative silence, engaging her body in the rhythmical work.
"Any successful marriage takes a devotion to irony that borders on Zen" (125).
I came away from this book feeling that what I observed onscreen in the 1986 performance was indeed genuine, as the elements of personality that shone through felt congruent with the voice narrating Winger's memoir. So, for someone expressing that she has sought to create authentic performances, even though the term has become vastly overused these days, in that sense this book felt "authentic."
As does Winger.
September 9, 2018
I adore Debra Winger in her earlier works; Urban Cowboy, An Officer & A Gentlemen and of course in my all time favorite movie, Terms of Endearment. I bought this book with the misconceived notion that it would offer a glimpse of her earlier life, introduction into acting, her life away from the camera and so fourth. I was disappointed not just in the fact it didn't touch on much of any of those things but that it is also filled with inconsequential topics, scattered ideas and paragraphs that end abruptly without finishing her thoughts or even stories and then she rambles into some new incoherent paragraph or chapter. A talent at acting, she is. A author, she isn't. I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I'm thankful that I purchased it for my Kindle at a price of $2.00 and not full price.
November 24, 2018
Very poignant
June 15, 2020
I can only say this is the worst book ever written. Awful. It is an uninteresting, boring, scribbled diary.
March 14, 2013
After several successful films in the 1980s (my favorite being "An Officer and A Gentleman" co-starring Richard Gere), out of choice, actress Debra Winger disappeared from the world of Hollywood. She would appear only occasionally in some small roles in films, but as she indicates in her book, "Undiscovered," she was not interested in dealing with the competition and rejections anymore. She was much happier living out in the country, working on her garden and being a wife and mother. In her book, she doesn't write too much about the world of movies, although I wish she had. I would have liked to find out more. She does write that after the movie "Urban Cowboy" was released, she had some difficulty dealing with sudden fame. Gracefully she got out of Hollywood while being on the top of her game, and she writes about other things in her life. She writes about mourning her mother's death. She writes about her son, only identifying him only by an initial, valuing his privacy. She writes about having an accident, wherein she fell badly at the age of seventeen which left her with temporary blindness. She does not write about why acting inspired her. I felt that her book was interesting and inspiring, but a very unconventional memoir by a celebrity, since she writes very little about her fame.
December 10, 2011
definitely a different sort of book. Nonlinear to say the least. Maybe my favorite actress writing about........well, nothing specifically. Just a series of vignettes, poems, reflections, cryptic anecdotes about the film industry in which the people she's discussing usually aren't named.....
She misses her mom, mostly likes farm life, has some moving things to say about her kids, and did not enjoy the peripheral stuff associated with being famous. Her voice in the writing somehow reminded me just a bit of the advice columnist Carolyn Hax, though what in the world she is saying is certainly seldom as clear as in Hax's writing.
Quick read and you can skim through to find stuff that connects, but if you're anticipating a recap of her mercurial interaction with Shirley MacLaine while making Terms of Endearment or something like that, forget it.
She misses her mom, mostly likes farm life, has some moving things to say about her kids, and did not enjoy the peripheral stuff associated with being famous. Her voice in the writing somehow reminded me just a bit of the advice columnist Carolyn Hax, though what in the world she is saying is certainly seldom as clear as in Hax's writing.
Quick read and you can skim through to find stuff that connects, but if you're anticipating a recap of her mercurial interaction with Shirley MacLaine while making Terms of Endearment or something like that, forget it.
Want to read
February 11, 2017I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14245937
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14245937
August 27, 2008
I am one of those people who have missed Debra Winger on the big screen and treasure her performance in her relatively few films such as "Shadowlands." Just as I loved her candor and honesty on the screen, I really liked the form and flow of this first novel. Her writing reflects her skill, but she also shares reflections upon her issues with the film industry, personal and professional relationships, and passages in her life which allow the reader to connect to what is universal about them. Her poetry, story telling and drawings demonstrate how she has carved out a life beyond acting and made meaning of that life. I will reread this book.
June 23, 2008
Meanderings from a movie star (I completely loved her in Officer and Gentleman and Urban Cowboy wasn't half bad either!) who prefers a life outside the red carpet. Nothing too deep here but clearly she is a thoughtful, soulful person who pays attention to the little things in her life as well as the grand. Enjoyable morning before work book. Like that she lives in the Catskills. Just saw a profile of her in People magazine and that jacket photo is way old!
July 23, 2008
Well, having read the write up on this book, and always enjoying Debra Winger, I thought for sure this would be an insight into her. Instead, when I was asked tonight what the book was about I couldn't answer. It was a very fast read, and at times entertaining but I seem to have missed the purpose. I think the book jacket may have been the best part of some other book, because I sure didn't read about any of that.
The pictures were pretty.
The pictures were pretty.
January 31, 2009
I found Debra Winger's observations about her family, career, and gardening interesting, but unsatisfying. I wanter to know what drew her to a career in acting, what she did to prepare for it, how she became sucessful, and why she decided to abandon it. I especially wanter to know what it was like to film "The Sheltering Sky" and how the experience changed her. My interest was whetted, but too much was left out.
November 4, 2013
I found this odd collection of poetry and prose surprising because through them Winger lifts the veil on herself. Some of her writing is a bit obtuse but the story about her late mother was breathtakingly painful, ever more so for me because I lost my mother last year. Winger thinks deeply and analytically about her subjects, and I would love to see her garden. I imagine she is brilliant in the tv series In Treatment which is made for her detailed emotional study.
November 24, 2013
This is so, so bad. I wanted a memoir. I got some bad poetry or something. I wanted to read about how she feels about being labeled as difficult to work with. I wanted to know if she really is difficult to work with. I wanted her thoughts and memories of working on such classics as Terms of Endearment and An Officer and a Gentleman. I got none of that.
October 31, 2008
A philosophical exploration of the author's life choices, many of them a direct result of her Hollywood experiences.
Some poetry and some insightful prose are brought to the reader to depict Debra Winger's love of acting, but why she turned her back on the Hollywood lifestyle.
She now lives happily in the countryside of New York state, with her husband and children.
Some poetry and some insightful prose are brought to the reader to depict Debra Winger's love of acting, but why she turned her back on the Hollywood lifestyle.
She now lives happily in the countryside of New York state, with her husband and children.
January 26, 2009
THIS IS A JOKE
SHAME ON YOU DEBRA WINGER I ORDERED THIS AND RETURNED IT BECAUSE ITS CRAP
EMPTY PAGES A PAGE WITH SOME DRAWING ON IT
THEN MORE EMPTY PAGES THEN CRAPPY POETRY
THIS IS A TESTAMENT TO I NEED MONEY CELEB SADNESS
BOO !!!
THIS ISNT WORHT THE TREES THEY SLAUGHTERED
IM VERY SAD ABOUT THIS BOOK
SHAME ON YOU DEBRA WINGER I ORDERED THIS AND RETURNED IT BECAUSE ITS CRAP
EMPTY PAGES A PAGE WITH SOME DRAWING ON IT
THEN MORE EMPTY PAGES THEN CRAPPY POETRY
THIS IS A TESTAMENT TO I NEED MONEY CELEB SADNESS
BOO !!!
THIS ISNT WORHT THE TREES THEY SLAUGHTERED
IM VERY SAD ABOUT THIS BOOK
September 16, 2012
I struggled with this book at times, most likely because it really has no point, but as a whole I enjoyed it. The chapters are short and dont go together; just a mix of thoughts and reflections and a few poems. I related very much to the emotions about losing her mom and was struck by seeing my own experience of that loss put on paper by another.
August 4, 2008
A slim volume that reads like diary entries, with all the faux-wisdom and lack of context one would expect when reading a stranger's diary. There's no unifying theme, nor is there any discernible order (chronological or otherwise).
August 12, 2008
I love her, grew up watching her movies and reading her memoir left me surprised. I honestly had her pegged wrong, she is much deeper and full of more soul than I ever gave her credit for. I absolutely loved this book.
September 12, 2008
One of the worst books I've ever attempted to read. I expected this to be a memoir. Instead, it was a series of deep thoughts and poems that were not memorable in the least. It was a disappointment.
December 29, 2008
at first the writing seemed pretentious, but some of the stories -- especially about her mother -- are very moving. Makes me want to see The Sheltering Sky and some of her recent work. Nice way to spend a few hours during a winter vacation.
March 8, 2010
There were so many things i liked about this small book. i connected and learned so much about debra winger. her background and how she has gotten to where she is today. luck and hardship just like anyone. glad i read it.
April 9, 2012
I probably read this too quickly to do it any real justice. Debra Winger is not an actress I can recall having seen but i found some of her philosophies interesting and others a little too cryptic. She can work prose but is less convincing in verse.
January 22, 2016
I good read. Read in an evening or less. Found myself writing down several quotes from the book.
This was a library loan.
Not sure why there were illustrations in the book. Likely as a show of artistic support for a friend.
This was a library loan.
Not sure why there were illustrations in the book. Likely as a show of artistic support for a friend.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews