A Fine Romance, by Candice Bergen
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A Fine Romance, by Candice Bergen
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In this New York Times bestseller, acclaimed actress Candice Bergen “shows how to do a memoir right...The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen’s first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life’s surprises” (The New York Times Book Review).“Candice Bergen is unflinchingly honest” (The Washington Post), and in A Fine Romance she describes her first marriage at age thirty-four to famous French director Louis Malle; her overpowering love for her daughter, Chloe; the unleashing of her inner comic with Murphy Brown; her trauma over Malle’s death; her joy at finding new love; and her pride at watching Chloe blossom. In her decidedly nontraditional marriage to the insatiably curious Louis, Bergen takes readers on world travels to the sets where each made films. Pregnant with Chloe at age thirty-nine, this mature primigravida also recounts a journey through motherhood that includes plundering the Warner Bros. costume closets for Halloween getups and never leaving her ever-expanding menagerie out of the fun. She offers priceless, behind-the-scenes looks at Murphy Brown, from caterwauling with Aretha Franklin to the surreal experience of becoming headline news when Dan Quayle took exception to her character becoming a single mother. Bergen tackles familiar rites of passage with moving honesty: the rigors of caring for a spouse in his final illness, getting older, and falling in love again after she was tricked into a blind date. By the time the last page is turned, “we’re all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door” (USA TODAY).
A Fine Romance, by Candice Bergen- Amazon Sales Rank: #3403581 in Books
- Brand: Center Point Pub
- Published on: 2015-05-01
- Format: Large Print
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.10" h x 5.70" w x 8.70" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Library Binding
- 500 pages
Review "Candice Bergen shows how to do a memoir right. . . . The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen's first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life's surprises. . . . As a fictional newswoman, Murphy Brown was iconically brassy. As a memoirist, Candice Bergen is flesh-and-blood classy." (The New York Times Book Review)“Bergen is . . . daring in her smart, self-mocking memoir A Fine Romance. . . . She’s awfully good company.” (The Wall Street Journal)“Bergen may not have had Murphy’s sharp elbows or unswerving career focus, but she reveals herself to be just as complicated and sophisticated as her television counterpart—and infinitely more introspective. . . . [A Fine Romance] succeeds in the way a good memoir should. It presents a human life in full—with great glories and heartaches and watercolored memories. Bergen tells her story with humor, confidence and candor. Perhaps she’s not so different from Murphy after all." (The Washington Post)“A Fine Romance is just that. Candice tells her own story with honesty and humor—a story of loves lost and found, of marriages, joys and heartaches. I am not sure Candice ever realized her own beauty or how well she writes. Well, she is, and she does.” (Barbara Walters)“Candice Bergen's memoir is moving with the wisdom that only age can bring. The woman you thought had everything has been through more than most of us could bear. Revelatory, anguished, and utterly inspirational.” (Bette Midler, author of A View from a Broad)"You'll fall for Bergen's A Fine Romance. . . . Her writing and storytelling are superb throughout. . . . With this memoir, we're all likely to be wishing Bergen herself—funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination—was living next door.” (USA Today)“Candice’s book is candid, honest, interesting, and reading it, you love her more than ever.” (Diane von Furstenberg, author of The Woman I Wanted to Be)“Bergen is a talented and graceful writer—something she first demonstrated in Knock Wood, which chronicled her Hollywood youth and coming of age as the daughter of famed comedian and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. Her literary voice is enormously engaging, capable of infusing considerable wit and poignancy. . . . She has something real to say here, and one hopes that her journey will continue for many years to come—and that eventually she'll write about that too.” (Chicago Tribune)“Candy's memoir is intimate and surprisingly candid. We learn, we laugh, we marvel because her voice is as honest, funny, and rapier-smart as Murphy’s. Add in self-reflection and self-deprecation and you have one heck of a great read.” (Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent)“Candy gives us a glimpse into the fascinating world of fame and shares with us the ordinary in the extraordinary.” (Carrie Fisher, author of Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking)"Three decades after writing her memoir Knock Wood, Candice Bergen has penned a follow-up, A Fine Romance . . . with candor, humor and poignancy." (LA Times)"A surprisingly frank and even bawdy mélange of celebrity fairy tale, marriage confessional and accounting of the mundane." (The New York Times)"Candice Bergen’s follow-up to her Knock Wood is among the more commendable celebrity memoirs you’ll encounter. . . . Along with writing skill . . . you’ll be impressed with [her] candor and wisdom." (The Buffalo News (Editor's Choice))"A Fine Romance is full of heart. Even though Bergen is surrounded by celebrity friends at the turn of every page, it's evident she is about as down-to-earth as they come. There is an honesty in her writing that is both refreshing and encouraging.” (Associated Press)“Bergen has a way of making readers think they are friends who understand her life and know her dreams and frustrations. The book is forthcoming and refreshingly human.” (The Examiner)“Bergen’s rapier wit, warm personality and unflinching honesty make these stories of life and love all the more appealing.” (Bookpage)"With her trademark wit, Bergen leads readers through the highs and lows of her professional and personal life in this entertaining and poignant memoir chock-full of Hollywood cameos. . . . Never afraid to poke fun at herself or celebrity culture, Bergen is as fresh, funny, and biting as Murphy Brown was nearly 30 years ago." (Publishers Weekly)“A glamorously bittersweet showbiz memoir.” (Kirkus)“Honest, self-deprecating and well-written.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
About the Author Candice Bergen’s film credits include The Sand Pebbles, Carnal Knowledge, Starting Over (for which she received an Oscar nomination), and Miss Congeniality. On television, she made headlines as the star of Murphy Brown, for which she won five Emmys and two Golden Globes. She later starred with James Spader and William Shatner in the critically acclaimed series Boston Legal. A gifted writer, Bergen has penned numerous articles and a play, as well as her first bestselling memoir, Knock Wood, and its follow-up, A Fine Romance.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. A Fine Romance
1
It was midway through October 1985, as I waddled in a huge plaid tent dress through the ground floor of Bergdorf’s. I’d put on almost fifty pounds since becoming pregnant. A woman kept peering at me, looking away, looking back. Finally she approached. “You know, you have Candice Bergen’s face.” “But not her body,” I said. Old friends saw me lurching along the street and burst out laughing. I scowled back. Would this baby be born in a hospital or at SeaWorld? The due date was the second half of October. I’d been hoping she’d arrive on Halloween, which was the day after my husband Louis Malle’s birthday. As the date grew closer, then passed, I went in for a checkup. Whoever was in there, she was hyperactive, that much was sure. She somersaulted and flipped around. Then she landed wrong. Her feet were tangled in the umbilical cord and she was upside down and feet first. There was a high risk of her cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients. A risk of brain damage. My obstetrician, the ironically named Dr. Cherry, was an affable, easygoing guy, but he grew concerned after the recent sonogram. “We need to think about scheduling a Cesarean,” he told me. Meanwhile, I was to go home and stay in bed with my feet up. No activity. That would be interesting, as Louis and I lived in a two-story loft and were having people for dinner that night. That was the beginning of the real bonding. Until that point, I’d kept a bit of distance, thinking of the baby as a kind of invader in my comfortable routines. I’d dragged my feet about preparing her room. No longer. It was ready, wallpapered in tiny pink rosebuds. I’d bought a white rocker and a white crib with pink ticking on the mattress and bumpers and found a pink Kit-Cat clock whose eyes and tail moved rhythmically back and forth. Now the Alien was in jeopardy. I could not lose her. Louis and I had been invited to a state dinner at the White House in honor of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It was the big wingding of the fall, and the royal couple was causing quite the stir. It was possible we could make it if the baby was prompt. The dinner was November 6. I figured we could take the train with the newborn and a baby nurse and stay in DC for a night. I would look like a blimp, but we could attend. As the date inched closer and there was no sign of a baby, I called Nancy Reagan, who has been a family friend all my life, and apologized for the delayed response. “Mrs. Reagan, she’s not moving,” I told her. She couldn’t have been sweeter. “Well, they’d love you to be there, Candy. Let us know when you can. Of course we understand.” What I didn’t understand was where this baby was. What was keeping her? At almost two and a half weeks past the due date, Dr. Cherry told me he’d decided to extract the baby by cesarean in three days; he was afraid she might have “exhausted prepartal nutrients.” Apparently my amniotic fluid was drying up. She was running out of snacks. The Kit-Cat clock was ticking. I was not in the market for abdominal surgery. I wanted to have this baby naturally. More or less. I did the few primitive things that were suggested to induce labor. Three of my closest girlfriends took me out to dinner and I ate the spiciest things on the menu, hoping to bring on contractions. Sweat streamed down my tiny head and pooled under my newly enlarged breasts. Nothing. I heaved my 180 pounds sixteen floors up to my apartment to see if that would get her moving. Zilch. Louis was giving me a wide berth; I was getting testy. Louis and I went to Mount Sinai Hospital the next day, November 8, 1985. The surgery was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. We were shown to a pre-op room and I undressed and got into a gown. They gave me oxytocin as a last gasp to start contractions. No dice. The baby was dug in. Dr. Cherry came in with the anesthesiologist and introduced him. He had clammy hands and a mustache that screamed “Shave me!” This was not a guy who seemed cool under pressure. He recognized me and appeared nervous. This was the guy who was going to give me the dreaded epidural? Women had been warning me about this shot, which is given in the base of the spine and is generally successful at blocking pain, except when it results in paralysis. The anesthesiologist told me to curl into the fetal position, which I did, but I was babbling incessantly, compulsively. I am not a good patient. The anesthesiologist also seemed stressed. He mentioned a movie I was in. I was freezing and shivering and the needle looked like a harpoon. Finally, he managed to give me the epidural, and I was wheeled down the battleship gray hall into the operating room. Louis walked beside me in his gown. The nurses erected a discreet sheet to screen any activity below the waist. Louis sat by my head. They started to swab me but I could feel it, and then I really panicked. The upside of the epidural was, I wasn’t paralyzed. The downside was, I wasn’t numb. Hey, guys, I’m not numb! I CAN FEEL EVERYTHING! This was a definite crick in the procedure. “Give her a shot of Valium and administer another spinal,” someone said. I resumed the fetal position. The anesthesiologist came at me with another harpoon. I wondered, Is this really the best guy you got here?!? Things got blurry; then I got a third epidural. Enough medication for a rhino, which in a sense I had become. I was groggy beyond belief, but I could still feel a prickling in my legs. I might have heard the word paresthesia. Was I going to feel it when the surgeon cut through my abdomen? Because I would not be okay with that. I was stoned and ranting and raging. “Do you feel this?” Dr. Cherry asked as he jabbed a pin in my leg. And then . . . murmuring, movement, a team at work. Louis watched it as the director he was. The curtain set up. People beyond it performing together. And suddenly a cry. A really loud cry. That would be my daughter crying. Bellowing. All nine pounds two ounces of her had been pried out of my ample abdomen, where she’d made a home—carpet, armchair, reading lamp, sound system—she was not happy about moving out. Now the trouble begins, I thought. Schools. Mean girls. Boyfriends. SATs. Now it hits the fan. Mademoiselle Chloe Malle. I heard Louis singing softly to her in French: “À la claire fontaine . . .” She’d been wrapped like a burrito and he held her gently in his arms, crooning. She relaxed and quieted, scrutinizing him. I was sobbing. So much emotion. So many drugs. She was placed in my arms now, cautiously, since I was so medicated that I was completely gaga. As if I would let anything happen. Again, the tears streamed down my cheeks. My baby girl. My baby girl. Who knew love was this huge? All-enveloping. All-encompassing. My baby girl. My God, I can’t believe I almost didn’t do this. It was clearly the beginning of my life. In the recovery room upstairs, Chloe was brought back to me, steamed and cleaned, fierce and irresistible. Ali MacGraw and Anne Sterling, two of my closest friends, had been waiting in the hospital lobby. They came up to meet Chloe and give me a pat on the head. I was having trouble speaking clearly, what with my dozens of epidurals, plus I was still weeping. But I was aglow. Chloe is here. Chloe is here. I was happier than I ever thought possible. Chloe is here.
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63 of 67 people found the following review helpful. Childhood Heroine Is Even Cooler In Real Life! By Geneva Mae Lewis As a preteen my Mom and I would watch Murphy Brown every week on TV...we followed Murphy from the first to the last episode. Growing up in the Midwest, being exposed to a woman who was a career woman: bold, stylish, at turns sardonic and sensitive...the show, and Candice Bergen's portrayal, captured my attention and forever love. Remember when Dan Quayle tried to make Murphy a poster child for unwed mothers? Murphy Brown was a groundbreaking television program, and this book has, if possible, made me like Candice Bergen even more- as a person, not as a talented actress. The story weaves reflection, life events, and the incredible twists, turns, and surprises that life holds. Beautifully written, the trajectory of the story spans critical years in Candice's mid-thirties to today. Louis Malle, the French filmmaker, becomes her first husband, and she discusses the dilemmas of cross-cultural marriages, as well as the joys. She struggles with the decision to have a child or not, and becomes a mother...her description of the ambiguities and dilemmas of the pros and cons of motherhood put into expression the thoughts many women have, in a witty and thoughtful manner. When the pilot for Murphy Brown is green-lighted by the network, Candice's life changes forever: a demanding but exhilarating work life, real-life motherhood and marriage amid widespread acclaim. She wins an Emmy the first year. Career and financial success is solidified, but her marriage with Malle becomes strained as his work life is increasingly centered in France, hers in Los Angeles. Her career success proves challenging for Malle's ego.As Murphy Brown settles into its final seasons, Malle becomes terminally ill, and she describes the brutal realities of working and caregiving, poignantly illustrated when the consummate professional cannot remember the 50 plus pages of dialogue per week, and her daughter Chloe with dark circles under her eyes in her 9th year, bravely trying to cheer her father's spirits as he faces death. With Malle's death, Candice focuses her energy on Chloe and slowly and painstakingly rebuilds her life. Years after Malles' death, Candice finds love again with a widowed Jewish architect. For the first time in her life, Candice is not the caretaker...Marshall takes care of her! There are a few chapters devoted to her travails of aging: weight gain, medical crises, her mother's final and tough years, and a few Botox and Restylane tales. Candace boldly claims that she "lives to eat" and she is not about to starve herself to maintain an impossible physique. She is still acting on TV and on Broadway and she is still a woman of extraordinary beauty, inside and out. What a joy to read this book and find out that one of my childhood icons is a gifted writer who expresses the tensions, challenges, joys, and heartbreaks of life...with humor and aplomb. Candice Bergen is an indomitable spirit, and a true American treasure.
86 of 97 people found the following review helpful. Rich and Famous By Jonster As I was reading this book, I kept imagining how Murphy Brown would have reviewed it. While I like Candice Bergen and loved her first book, this one left me nonplussed. I wanted to love it, I did in parts, but overall the feeling I walked away with is that I'd just read the diary of an international socialite jotting down the elements of her fashionable life for a Style column. No question, Bergen is a good writer but, as she's mellowed with age, she seems to have turned into someone I don't recognize. I'm a few years younger and have watched her career since Carnal Knowledge. In "A Fine Romance," I was surprised by the name-dropping (even though she grew up with the royalty of Tinseltown and truly knows all these people), the personal shoppers, a somewhat Gallic disdain for the American proletariat, and several redundancies which should have been caught by an editor. (The "TV money" that made her rich is mentioned at least three times in the same way.) I finished the book, and it did seem to me, as others have said, that Bergen was racing to the finish line. The chapters begin to go by quickly and hold less substance as we reach the end. For me, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as, forgive me, I was ready to put it down. I think women might better relate to this book than men. I know that's a generalization but, in parts, it seems to be written with an "I've been there girls; this is what you can expect" kind of tone. I will always like Candice Bergen. To me, she's an icon. Perhaps therein lies my consternation. Selfishly, I wanted her to fit the mold I invented for her all those years ago. I pictured her as the essence of Hollywood Cool, an earthy, humorous actress, perhaps one less concerned with the material aspects of life. However, having lived with a cool, critical father who left his money to a ventriloquist's dummy and not to her, I can't blame Bergen for worrying about the material aspects of life when it comes to her own daughter. If the men in her life seem to be on perpetual trial runs, it's clear Bergen has devoted her life, as well as this book, to her only child.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful. A fabulous life, missing some passion in the retelling By Lisa G I love Candice Bergen. Such a class act and a real star. I loved Knock Wood and really looked forward to reading this book. I'm about done with it and feeling slightly disappointed. Of course, she has led a fabulous life and it's fun a get a glimpse. But the book feels frenetic - a recounting of locations (we were in New York, then LA, then Paris, Sun Valley, back to LA, etc. etc.) with little emotion. Clearly this is a passionate woman and I wish more of her passion had come through the pages. She generally let the full text of letters from family and friends fill that gap. Also, the book could have benefited from stronger editing. Ms. Bergen mentions how Murphy Brown was written on the assumption that the audience was of a certain intellect. This book should have followed that prescription - tighter and eliminating several obvious redundancies. At times it felt like I was reading a draft. Still, I enjoyed learning about what Ms. Bergen has been up to and that she has the love she so deserves.
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