Hardcover
(3)
(1)From Chapter Eighteen: On Golden Pond...
From the moment I arrived in New Hampshire, I began taking backflip lessons from the University of Maine’s swimming coach, who summered near Squam Lake. I started with a belt around my waist, hooked up to a rope that assisted me in the flip, with a mattress to cushion the fall. After a week or so I graduated to the coach’s diving board, and Troy would sit poolside and watch his mother’s pathetic attempts to get herself all the way around, which generally ended with me landing on my back. I was terrified, always on the verge of tossing in the towel. After a month of this I moved to the float, the one in the movie, in front of the house, out in Squam Lake. It was the beginning of July, and I had less than a month to get it right. Every day when I wasn’t needed on the set I would be out there, diving backward, over and over again, my body slapping against the water as I failed to make it around. Then one day about three weeks into this ordeal on the lake, I finally got it right!
. Nothing to write home about, but I had managed to flip far enough over to have time to straighten my legs and enter the water headfirst. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to do it again, but at least I’d done it once. As I crawled, battered and bruised, onto the shore, out of the nearby bushes appeared Ms. Hepburn. She must have been hiding there, watching me practice. She walked over to where I was standing and said in her shaky, nasal, God-is-a-New-Englander voice, ‘Don’t you feel good?’ ‘Terrific,’ I answered. And it was true. ‘You’ve taught me to respect you, Jane. You faced your fear. Everyone should know that feeling of overcoming fear and mastering something. People who aren’t taught that become soggy.’ Thank you, Lord! I’d been redeemed. God knows the last thing in the world I wanted to be was soggy, certainly not in the eyes of Ms. Hepburn, a living testament to nonsogginess. It was odd. In the film the backflip was to prove myself to my father. In real life I had proved myself to Ms. Hepburn. Dad probably couldn’t have cared less if I’d done the dive myself or used a stunt double. We finally shot the diving scene in the third week of July. I managed a fairly good dive and was relieved to have it out of the way. Wrong, wrong, wrong, as Ms. Hepburn would say. A few days later we learned that the footage of the scene had somehow been damaged in the lab and I would have to do it all again. As though that weren’t bad enough, when we finally got around to reshooting, it was mid-September and the water was numbingly cold. I will never forget having to walk out on the diving board, all wet and shivering, while the crew sat in the camera boat in their down parkas. I was out of practice and too cold to execute the dive as well as I had the first time. When I came to the surface and said, ‘I did it! It was lousy, but at least I did it,’ those were my own words, spontaneous and totally true.
(2)"Portia de Rossi's memoir reminds us that fame and celebrity is no substitute for feeling comfortable in one's own skin, and unconditional love. Her journey toward self-acceptance is an important lesson for those who struggle with eating disorders, sexual orientation, and confidence. Every girl who dreams of being a model should read this book, to learn that the best judge of beauty is not society -- but self." -- Jodi Picoult
“Anyone who’s ever wondered why a beautiful, talented young woman would starve herself – as well as anyone looking for a powerfully-written memoir – should read Unbearable Lightness. Portia De Rossi tells her story with genuine insight and unflinching honesty. Her plight is horrifying, but De Rossi herself is entirely sympathetic, and by the end, you will cheer her on.” --Jeannette Walls
“De Rossi is beautiful and famous and married to another celebrity and all of this makes it very easy to roll your eyes and dismiss Unbearable Lightness, her memoir of overcoming an eating disorder.
Don't make that mistake: this is quite possibly the best book on the subject ever written. It is riveting and ruthlessly honest. De Rossi is the real deal; she's a fine writer with a sharp mind and tremendous substance who has turned in a rich, layered book of remarkable courage, power and significance. I have no doubt that her story will serve as life-changing inspiration for many young women currently struggling with their own food issues. But the book's general excellence makes it a fascinating and inspiring read for anyone.” --Augusten Burroughs
“There are passages in this book that I had to read through my fingers, and others that made me laugh aloud. UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS is breathtakingly honest, brutal and beautiful.” —Jonathan Safran Foer
'a courageous, startlingly honest account...It really is an amazing read; beautifully writen, it vividly captures the alarming, self-destructive thought processes that drive anorexic behaviour'
Diva Magazine, Jan 2011
'a surprisingly open memoir...Her book is a gripping story about dealing with the combined shame, as she saw it, of gayness and fatness'
Times Magazine, Nov 2010
'This is the moving, often heartbreaking story of how the actress came to terms with her body and her sexuality, finding the strength to overcome her fears and create a life that nourished both her body and her soul'
Scottish Daily Record
Praise for Tintin: Hergé & His Creation
(--- )
(2)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(1)
(1)
