The book is a dance between candor and diplomacy, as Andrews navigates the imperative of honesty with the courteousness that seems to be her governing instinct ... Andrews’s authorial voice in Home Work is authentic; her narrative is stately, funny, open, and characterized by an outright refusal to indulge in self-pity. It’s also enhanced by excerpts from her diaries, which convey some sense of how heavy she could find the emotional burden of performing.
... intriguing tidbits ... But unlike many Hollywood memoirs these days, it doesn’t contain any shocking or titillating revelations ... the 84-year-old British-born actress and singer comes across pretty much as the Julie Andrews that we admire on the screen—graceful, elegant and wholesome, but not particularly complicated or troubled ... Home Work is the story of an ordinary person blessed with extraordinary gifts, including a soaring, angelic soprano voice, whose big struggle was to maintain that normalcy in a Hollywood rife with exploitation and excess ... Andrews’ portrait of [Blake] Edwards, to whom she was married until his death at age 88 in 2010, is more revealing than anything she writes about herself ... The most moving part of the book is Andrews’ account of postwar Vietnam and Cambodia, which she visited in the early 1980s as part of a humanitarian delegation ... She devotes more space and vivid detail in the book to those scenes of heart-wrenching deprivation and suffering than she gives to some of her movies ... Andrews’ refreshing unpretentiousness and gentle sense of bemusement at her life’s adventures...make Home Work a book that will appeal to fans of her films, as well as anyone who wants to be reassured that being a celebrity doesn’t have to involve scandal.
A frank and intimate storyteller whose radiant spirit fills these pages, Andrews chronicles the peaks and valleys of her life and career. This event-packed memoir is a must for fans of Andrews’s life and work, students of cinema history, and anyone who is curious about musical film production.
Those expecting a Hollywood memoir filled with famous faces dropping witty bon mots will be disappointed. Instead, they will find a not unintriguing record of an extraordinary woman’s version of an ordinary life ... these anecdotes are a little too pleasant ... Those who want to read about Mary Poppins or Maria von Trapp will put this down unsatisfied. There are bits and pieces, but what we have here is Julie Andrews as her actual self, with barely a spoonful of sugar along the way ... Andrews’s tone is measured but realistic. The book is filled with that most distinctive of all of her qualities: her voice. For many, hearing the struggles with domestic despair will be like finding a tender hand in the dark. Her honesty is not self-indulgent. There’s a sense that she wants to give comfort to those whose domestic lives are also filled with struggle. As such, Mary Poppins may appear only briefly here, but her spirit is alive and well.
Like the iconic nanny who made her an international star, Julie Andrews’s second memoir is brisk, no-nonsense—a spit-spot, spot-on walk through the crowded hours of her prime Hollywood career. But Home Work is also eloquently introspective, and further proof, if any were needed, that Andrews’s personal life has been anything but 'practically perfect in every way' ... Andrews’s charming, well-told accounts of the making of Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and 10 share these 300-plus pages with her candid exploration of a complicated domestic existence ... Andrews is a natural writer and her authentically British voice shines through here ... If this second book falls more in an established star’s genre of 'and then I made … ; it nevertheless has its own share of insights, born of Andrews’s long years of psychoanalysis.
... warm, graceful, and candid ... Andrews, along with her steadfast coauthor, tells captivating, sweetly self-deprecating, funny, and painful behind-the-scenes tales about her many movie adventures and frankly recounts the end of her first marriage and the high drama of her second as she and renowned director Blake Edwards collaborated cinematically and in creating a complicated extended family often beset with traumas. This deeply pleasurable and forthright chronicle illuminates the myriad reasons 'home work' has such profound meaning for artist and humanitarian Andrews.
Andrews offers a sincere and inspiring account of her life ... This charming account of Andrews’s professional and personal life will no doubt serve to make the venerated performer all the more beloved.
... warm, entertaining ... While Andrews is too discreet and canny to settle any scores or burn any bridges with her Hollywood colleagues, and she remains guardedly respectful toward most of her co-workers, she knows how to spin a yarn. Even her experience with the notoriously difficult Alfred Hitchcock comes off as remarkably pleasant ... An insightful treat for Andrews' fans.
