Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5
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- Ebooks:. Melanie Chartoff Odd Woman Out
- 'Odd Woman Out' is the memoir by Hollywood actress, Melanie Chartoff. As a kid of the 90s, I know her as the voice behind a couple of the characters on 'Rugrats.' She had a fascinating career before that in a world that was certainly not easy for actresses.
- 10:17 am ET Updated May 25, 2011 I have spent the majority of my life surrounded by women. After the birth of my older brother, my parents got it right and had three daughters (me in the middle). My teachers have been predominately female. Though I happily discovered the allure and value of boys, my best buddies are girls.
Odd Woman Out is a celebratory memoir in which the underside of fame is addressed with humor and wisdom.
Actress and comedian Melanie Chartoff discusses her real-life search for serious love in Odd Woman Out.
At twenty-six I got my first ‘real’ job. Ever the consummate professional, on hearing the words: ‘You’re hired.’ I leapt across the desk to awkwardly bear-hug my (wildly unnerved) new boss. David and I started east from the slushy Midwest. We parked our U-Haul under a canopy of cherry blossoms, and life felt sunny.
Growing up in New Haven, Connecticut, Chartoff rebelled against her family’s dysfunctional attempts at staying intact by going it alone. Pursuing acting as a singular goal, she forewent marriage and kids, but still craved the attention and companionship of men. The struggle to balance her love life with her burgeoning career became harder as her fame grew. Facing menopause, she tried a new way to date, only to discover that she was no longer the odd one out, but a woman in love.
Made up of essays and stories that come together as a cogent record of Chartoff’s relationships with men and with herself, the book is, in the vein of Chartoff’s career, anecdotal and funny. Kooky people, including a man with fake chest hair, a master comedian, an awkward farmer, and a science fiction musical director populate its slapstick incidents, as with Chartoff playing a trick with her fan mail. Those close to her, including her parents, are more tragic figures who exist in stark contrast to the people she meets. Always among strong personalities, Chartoff is seen struggling to find her voice.
The book’s language is playful. It makes use of alliterations and original words, like “cathartsis,” meaning catharsis through art. These habits conjure Chartoff’s exuberance for her crafts. So determined is her exuberance that she sacrifices her own comfort: she opens her expensive but tiny New York apartment to a down-and-out performer, hoping for rent help, but gets a desperate lover instead. An exchange at the end of the sequence reveals the time and energy required to confront him with a definitive “get out.”
Though its tone is psychologically vulnerable and confessional, the book’s pacing is frantic, mimicking the many obstacles Chartoff overcame to find her voice. Its first chapter is set in the present, during a panicked gynecological exam, but others also center around crises, reflecting both Chartoff’s mounting anxiety and desire to find solace. Toward the end, grief prevails, and the chapters become jumbled. The book’s late stream-of-consciousness style conflates time and space and becomes self-referential and introspective as Chartoff learns to work with, not against, her lover and herself to find balance. The slow conclusion focuses on, and is hopeful for, the future.
Odd Woman Out is a celebratory memoir in which the underside of fame is addressed with humor and wisdom.
Reviewed by Mari Carlson
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
A different kind of celebrity memoir from Melanie Chartoff
Books by celebrities often seem like they’re granting a favor to us commoners. They’re giving lowly readers a chance to virtually rub elbows with famous people, to see behind the curtain into a more glamorous world. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as Jerry Seinfeld might say. But Melanie Chartoff’s Odd Woman Out: Exposure in Essays and Stories, is a reminiscence for the rest of us.
Long-time TV watchers might recognize Melanie Chartoff from appearances in a variety of TV series episodes, such as Newhart, Take Five, Weird Science, and Jumanji. Personally, I recognize her voice best. Well, not the Melanie Chartoff voice I would hear if I happened to be sitting near her at a restaurant, but her voice as Didi Pickles in Rugrats.
In Odd Woman Out, though, Chartoff doesn’t use an abundance of pages recounting her life as a performer, comedian, and actor, except as it’s germane to her struggles to succeed and to her inner life. Her book is a mix of memoir and stand-alone essays. Many of the chapters were previously published, as with essays, in journals and magazines. They’re strung together mostly chronologically, beginning with her childhood, for the feel of a memoir.
Average and relatable
Chartoff sets the stage by opening herself up to the reader, sharing an OMG-embarrassing story of getting photographed at the grand opening of a Hustler store. She’d gone incognito to the store to purchase a doctor-prescribed dildo, which was named Tyrone. But the tabloid didn’t bother asking about her reasons for being at the store before publishing a picture of her in a trench-coat-and-sunglasses disguise. The tabloid didn’t warn her that they would label her as “worst dressed” and tell the world where she’d been.
Odd Girl Out Naver
“My fantasy of preserving an upstanding image until married combusts. I am no longer an ingenue,” she writes. “But what the hell am I now, and how the hell, at this stage and age, have I ended up so alone, holed up with someone like Tyrone?”
She answers this question in the book (though, fortunately, the conclusion is more uplifting than a Melanie + Tyrone love story). Throughout, she’s open about her own weaknesses and especially about her dysfunctional family.
“In grammar school, I sat alone at lunch,” she wrote. A note from a secret admirer, when shared with other girls at school, gave her a glimpse into popularity. When she and the other girls realized that the secret admirer was an unpopular band geek, young Melanie rejected him publicly. “At that moment I knew how it felt to be popular,” she recalled. “And I knew how it felt to be cruel.”
Woman Odd One Out
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Her family life lacked support, love, and affirmation. It was, as she called it, an “abusement park.” Her father was emotionally abusive to Melanie and her younger sister and to their mother. Her mother did little to counteract his abuse and even exacerbated its effects.
Yet the negative doesn’t pull the book down into maudlin. Melanie Chartoff uses enough humor to offset the poignancy and painful introspection. She states facts without an abundance of whining. She demonstrates a determination to move forward – emotionally and professionally – despite challenges and rough patches.
But, she shares plenty of purely entertaining anecdotes, too. (Don’t miss the proposal from a stranger and his carrier pigeon in “Homing In,” the free trip to El Presidente Hotel in Mexico, the cremation salesman in “The Undertow of Neptune,” and Rodney Dangerfield’s “Oh, yeah. Terrific” exclamations in “The Great Unknown,” among other amusing tales.)
The book’s essay format enables Chartoff to share messages that reach beyond her own life. In “Gray Areas,” she examines the issues of sexual objectification of young girls and women and sexual harassment. She also delves into relationships, being single and childless, spiritual healing, a not-so-spiritual ashram, and more.
The baby boomer perspective
Odd Woman Out
Born in 1948, Melanie Chartoff offers insights for other aging adults, especially women. “My luminosity began to fade after more than 20 years of getting comfy with it,” she wrote. Two paragraphs later, she added, “As I worry less about how I appear to others, I’ve gotten to know and be known for myself.”
She writes of her aging parents, her father’s death, and her acceptance of the passing years.
Odd Woman Out Definition
As I knew I was getting to the end of the book, I expected a conclusion with more of the same: touching, with bits of sadness, but funny. Instead, Chartoff’s life took a very positive turn. She entered a new, scary, but welcome chapter of life. Her introspection about this new experience is especially welcome to the older adult reader. And after 200 pages of getting to know Melanie Chartoff, the reader can’t help but cheer her on.
Odd Woman Out Book
Ebooks:. Melanie Chartoff Odd Woman Out
Melanie Chartoff’s Odd Woman Out: Exposure in Essays and Stories
Books Fluent, Feb. 2, 2021