RaveWashington PostAn intensely self-aware and cheerfully self-revealing memoir. Blair explores the abundant darkness arising from her fraught relationships with her mother, men, alcohol and, ultimately, multiple sclerosis. In different hands, this might make for a more painful read. But throughout her breezy narrative, Blair’s wry humor and her chatty, confiding tone make you feel that you’re spending 300 pages with a smart and, yes, slightly bratty new friend ... Despite its darkness, Mean Baby is also entertaining, particularly when Blair writes about her friendships ... She offers brutally honest accounts of her symptoms and struggles, including frequent falls, inability to focus, memory loss and incontinence. As she did in the 2021 documentary film Introducing, Selma Blair, Blair renders these disheartening details with humor. This is no pity party ... The documentary delivers the full weight of her condition in a way the book cannot ... As a fellow MS patient...I would have liked to read more about Blair’s course of treatment leading up to her decision to undergo HSCT, or hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation, a Hail Mary approach that is generally considered only when all other therapeutic options have been tried and failed. But Mean Baby is not WebMD. Blair’s memoir of her life thus far is funny and frank, a chance to spend time with a brave and big-hearted woman who’s grown up to be not so mean, after all.
