Jane Fonda (born 1937) has been one of the most visible women in America in the 1980s because of her multi-faceted career. She won a number of awards for acting on stage and screen, and later went into activism and physical fitness, earning international fame with the release of Jane Fonda’s Workout in 1982. In My Life so Far, an autobiography/memoir, she reveals a lot about herself. She starts from her traumatic childhood with a mother who had psychological problems and ultimately committed suicide, and a celebrity father, the actor Henry Fonda, who was always somewhat distant, and comes up to her present life, that of a social activist.
The book is appropriately divided into three acts. In Act One, subtitled “Gathering”, Fonda talks about her childhood, the beginnings of her career in acting and her marriage to Roger Vadim. Act Two, subtitled “Seeking”, records her quest for a more meaningful life through social activism. She also talks about some of her memorable roles. The role of Bree Daniel, a call girl in Klute as portrayed by her, was particularly memorable, and she was awarded an Oscar for it. The degree of her involvement with the role can be gauged from her remarks in the book. To quote, “In retrospect, I see the parallels between myself and Bree, a woman who felt safer hooking than facing true intimacy.”
The role played by the American government in the Vietnam War changed a lot of things in the country—equations and values, among others. There was a lot of protest against the war, mainly through activism and literature. Jane Fonda got into antiwar activism around this time and talks about her experiences at length. She tells the reader in the Preface that the most important lesson that she learnt from US servicemen who had fought in the Vietnam War was that “…although we may enter the heart of darkness, if we are brave enough to face and then speak our truth, we can change and be set free”. In many ways, her antiwar activism freed her from her celebrity status and the trappings that went with it.
The third section, or Act Three, subtitled “Beginning”, chronicles Jane Fonda’s relationship with Ted Turner and her attempt to lead a conscious and conscientious life in which philanthropy and activism figure prominently. She puts it very simply but convincingly: “I feel myself being drawn forward along a path shaped by my new understandings of gender and of faith.” She is not sure where her energies would lead her but she is sure of using them in a positive manner.
My Life so Far is a book which I read more out of curiosity than anything else. I am sure the American reader, especially the older woman, would relate to it. As for the Indian reader, I am not sure how many are going to empathise with it and I include even those who have seen films like Klute or tried Fonda’s workout regime. While one admires the frankness with which the author is able to talk about her personal life, even intimate details, one wonders at times if they are really necessary to the narrative. On the whole, this reviewer does not find Jane Fonda’s My Life so Far sustainingly interesting or even inspiring from the Indian point of view.
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