MY MOTHER WAS NUTS

This memoir from actress, producer, and director Penny Marshall, while offering a detailed and close-up look at her life throughout the years, is ultimately a disappointment. Marshall narrates her own work in her heavy Bronx accent, at times stumbling over passages. She chronicles her New York upbringing, her marriages, and her turns in the entertainment business making television commercials, acting in "Laverne and Shirley," and directing movies that became box-office successes. She is unflinchingly honest in presenting the less savory elements of her life, such as her drug use and promiscuity, as well as her successes and joys. In the end, though, the work comes off as self-indulgent, with rampant celebrity name-dropping and too little insight into her inner life. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2012]