The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Rating:
3.5 Stars
In a nutshell:
Actress and dancer Kelly Bishop tells the story of her life.
Best for:
Fans not just of Gilmore Girls, but fans of theatre, and those who just appreciate a clever woman.
Quote that made me think:
“Aren’t we lucky that there’s such a wide variety of dreams to choose from, and so many people who choose them.”
Why I chose it:
I watched Gilmore Girls on streaming and found the characters interesting. Thought this might be an interesting read.
Review:
This is a good memoir, at least by my measure, which is this: did I learn something new about the author’s life (yes) and did it feel like they were as honest as reasonable (yes). I came away thinking that Bishop is the rare person who is not brutally honest – they are just honest. There’s only apologizing when it is warranted, but there isn’t the cruelty that so often comes with it. Basically, I get the sense that Bishop is who the average ‘I just tell it like it is’ person THINKS they are, when in reality the vast majority of them are just assholes. And she does not strike me as an asshole.
She has also lived a FASCINATING life. I’m not going to get into it all here (that’s the point of the book, right?), but she was part of the workshop that resulted A Chorus Line, and one of the characters is basically based on her life. And she won a Tony award for it (coincidentally, she won the same night as future TV husband Edward Hermann). And who could forget that she was Baby’s mom in Dirty Dancing? And of course, the role that millennials likely know her from – Emily on Gilmore Girls.
Some things that really stood out to me where her love of animals, and her very clear desire to NOT have children. It’s one of the first things that comes up in the book (a musing she had as a child herself), and she sticks to it throughout her life. She shares in the book that she had an abortion when she had an unexpected pregnancy, and she doesn’t apologize for it or make excuses, because she doesn’t need to. She just shares why it was the right choice for her.
Her personal life had rough aspects to it – a horrible father, and a not-great first husband. But her second husband was clearly her great love, and she speaks of him (and his experience with cancer and ultimately his death) with an almost poetry.
The section on Gilmore Girls is not as long or detailed as I would have expected given the title of the book, but it makes sense if you think about how long a life she has lived. It is interested, for sure, but I probably would have enjoyed more.
The quote I chose to pull out I loved because I think it’s a great thing not just for aspiring dancers, or actors, or artists in general. None of us need to live the same lives, and that’s a good thing. We can dream of having children, and dream of not having children. We can dream of dancing in the West End or of teaching five year olds how to read. We can dream of being surgeons, or of partners, or of singletons traveling the world. Bishop dreamed first of ballet, then of acting, and she managed to turn those dreams into reality.
Would I recommend it to its target audience:
Yes, though if all you are looking for is hot Gilmore Girls gossip, you will be disappointed, as she spends maybe 15% (at most) of the book on that. Which makes sense, as it only ran for 7+1 seasons, and Ms Bishop has lived a long life.
