PanThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette...unfortunately, without the chapters about Mr. Trump and Mr. Ailes, the rest of the book reads like a 300-page motivational poste ... She writes about this without the slightest hint of irony, suggesting she’s not familiar with the concept of white privilege. It pervades the book, and it’s hard to believe that Ms. Kelly really doesn’t see that being an attractive white female might have innate advantages. That’s what’s weird about this memoir: It’s full of self-reflection without a lot of self-awareness. She repeatedly writes as if she’s giving herself a pep talk, inventing drama where there really isn’t any, and rationalizing or glossing over areas that could have benefited from more careful analysis.
Bryan Cranston
PositiveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteIt’s easy to dismiss 'acting is hard' memoirs as tiresome, because so many of them are. But Mr. Cranston writes in a plainspoken, casual style that’s surprisingly engaging ... The highlight of A Life in Parts is how generous Mr. Cranston is with behind-the-scenes details from his long acting career ... The candor and self-introspection of this book are reminiscent of another unflinchingly honest memoir, the late Katharine Graham’s magnificent Personal History ... The overall tone of A Life in Parts is like a conversation with your dad, who wants to tell you all his stories. Some stories you’ll learn from, but all are fascinating because you felt like you kinda knew this person, only to discover how much more there is below the surface.
Susan Faludi
PositiveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteIn the hands of a lesser writer, this plot could easily have devolved into a movie-of-the-week story of prodigal child and late-life reconciliation. But Ms. Faludi is too honest to offer easy answers to the questions of identity that are woven throughout the 400-page story ... Ms. Faludi is searching for a lot of things in this work, it seems, and it’s not clear by the end of the book whether she’s found anything, much less whether she’s discovered what she needed to. In the Darkroom is an exhilarating and frustrating work, with an abrupt ending that leaves much unresolved. But it’s is a bold attempt to shed light on the nature of family, identity and other issues of human nature for which there are few easy answers.
