Justine BatemanReseñas

Rounded up from 3.5 stars.

Reading Bateman's "Fame" is like listening to one long, breathless download by a smart and insightful person. This isn't a memoir about being famous, but it still provides a visceral sense of what it's like to be the person standing on the red carpet in front of the cameras -- and what it feels like later on, when the cameras are pointed at the person behind you, not at you.

My favorite takeaway was her observation that fame isn't something a person can control. It's a "sheath" which is "sprayed" on someone by others. And that sheath then influences every single interaction that person has with others, whether they want it to or not.

There's a fair amount of repetition of ideas, which is one of the reasons I didn't rate the book higher. Sometimes the urgent, breathless tone became a bit much ("breathless" as in saying quite a bit before stopping to actually breathe in again, not as in a Marilyn Monroe whisper), but Bateman did succeed in creating a sense of intimacy, of wanting to talk directly to the reader as a friend. So many people are star-struck by fame, yearn for fame, are scornful of fame, but she is one of the few who can describe what's like on the other side, and she urgently wants others to understand how it works. . . because it's not like what most of us imagine.

*I received a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
This book provides many personal stories about the relationship between women and their own physical appearance and how society's expectations and judgments affect that relationship. Some of the reflections hit very close to home, as I am a woman in my mid-fifties. But overall I was unenthused about the entire book. The focus is on the experience of white women with few or no financial constraints. I think the book would have been better if it had examined the experience of a wider swath of women. But I appreciate the willingness to address this topic with honesty.

Face by Justine Bateman is a work that tried so hard not to be too jargonish or theoretical that it became hard to discern what points are actually being made. While I think the book will still be empowering for many I also think another large group will be left scratching their heads.

I think the idea of presenting the types of things women go through with respect to appearance, and specifically the face, in short story form can be a very useful method. I recently read another book that did something similar. But what that book added that this book didn't was some context and theory around the stories. It really wouldn't have taken much, maybe grouping the stories by a common concept and offering a short conceptual chapter for each group explaining what is being shown and what we can learn and change in that area. Instead, it just becomes a collection of stories that leaves the reader largely wondering what they can gain from them.

I will still recommend this but mostly for those already well-versed in the theories surrounding this topic so that they can essentially insert their own conceptual chapters as they read. If I were still teaching any WGS courses I could see myself selecting some of these examples to highlight other more theoretical readings and discussions. I found her book Fame to be insightful and had expected something similar, so I would warn readers who think the same thing to temper their expectations.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

So not what I thought it would be. The stories for the most part are very superficial. Sure, that was the point, to show how superficial we are in judging people and especially women, by their looks or disregard women as they age and lose their youthful looks, but I was expecting more deeper stories.

I understand what Bateman is attempting to do here, but it’s uneven and repetitive, in large part. Also, the blurred line between what’s “real” and what’s been “fictionalized,” for the sake of the story, kept getting in the way.½

What a wonderful insight into how women are treated based solely on their looks. I know this is not new information to any woman, but to read little snippets of reactions and responses to how we age was reassuring, that most of us are and should embrace our looks at any stage in life.

Those of us who grew up in the 80s might best remember Justine Bateman from her role as Mallory in “Family Ties.” Her character was depicted as a stereotypical teen from that era: obsessed with materialistic success, appearance and conformity. It is interesting in this context to read her latest work of collected stories, Face, which is a repudiation of those very values that she used to portray. The book contains 47 short stories, each told by the point-of-view of American women of varying ages and occupations. The overarching theme is the marginalization of women once they reach a mature age, with or without opting for cosmetic surgery to mitigate its effects. In the introduction, Bateman discusses how the perceived value of women after child-bearing age is greatly diminished, especially when compared to men of similar ages. While the author is seeming to attempt a broad inclusion of different narrators, the book is heavily represented by the wealthy and privileged-especially those in the entertainment industry. This is unsurprising given Bateman’s own probable circle of associates and experience but results in a sense of elitism and repetitiveness. There is no mention of people for whom such surgeries are unavailable due to cost or opportunity, and the elective procedures are treated as choices available to all. Bateman’s own opinion on the subject becomes very clear, and this book appears to act somewhat as a personal rebuttal to her own critics and competitors in her industries. Those who choose to alter their appearance are for the most part disdained and judged as being superficial. Face is a book with a clear agenda that is meant to be considered admirable and affirming, but unfortunately often comes across instead as didactic and one-sided.

Thanks to the author and Akashic Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.½

As a woman of early-middle-age, this book struck a chord with me. Our society worships youth and the appearance of it - especially for women. There is a constant stream of advertisements for goods like cosmetic procedures, creams, makeups, and other consumables - all telling aging women that there is something wrong with them. They need fixed. A woman who allows natural aging is in direct conflict with this message, and can be offensive to those who buy into the marketing. In this book, the author ultimately advocates for women to reject society's harmful standards of beauty and to embrace and feel pride in an aging face. It's a refreshing, feminist, and needed message.

Ugh, I was so disappointed in this book. I couldn't relate to the women, because they were all financially comfortable and could just run down at lunchtime and get a little Botox treatment if they discover a new wrinkle. Real women aren't like that!

The premise of this collection of stories about women and aging was so enticing. But I felt that it didn't deliver as the stories were not across the time line...I would have prefer more from women in their 50s and upwards. And I felt the recollections lacked depth...is it safe to say there were only "skin deep"?

This review is based on an advanced uncorrected proof provided by the publisher for the LibraryThing early reviewer program for Face: One Square Foot of Skin. According to the publisher's ad, this "book was based on “older face” experiences of the author" and dozens of people she interviewed. I assumed that the stories would primarily be about the elderly -- people who actually had older faces, and was deeply disappointed to discover that there were more stories about women in their 30s or younger (12) than in their 60s or over (5). In my opinion, the story about the first grade teacher teaching her students about what a face could do was entirely inappropriate. The stories featured people with money who could afford to pamper their faces and have various operations to make them appear younger. Some of the women felt pressured by society or their professions to look young. Several stories showed how men valued women on pretty faces; one story dealt with a man's asking his wife to tell the wife of a new employee to get a face lift so the couple would fit into the company culture. Fortunately, by the end of the book, more of the stories were about women's valuing their aging faces, and not as depressing as those at the book's beginning.

Oh gee, I was hoping for so much more. Justine Bateman took the time to do 47 short stories with people on the subject of women with aging face. She concentrates on women who are rich enough to spend $2,000 a year on face creams and those who get hooked into the face life addiction.

On the cover, her face is shown with the markings of a cosmetic surgeon. That lead me to think that this book is about her own personal story. If I could talk to Justine, I would tell her to write the story from her own heart, her own personal view, not from 47 different people.

What we got instead were one-word sentences, choppy, choppy and very repetitious. I started out reading the stories. Everyone ended abruptly and lacked depth. When I got to page 91, I began to skim. I felt that I was felt that I was floundering. I do believe that she is good at acting and directing, but I think that she needs to read, read, read and take writing courses to learn how to speak her heart and have people hear her message.

Face addresses women's concerns with aging. This is very much a book geared to white women with expendable incomes in the United States. On the first page, Ms. Bateman explains how she has always admired the looks of older European actresses. I feel this book has a limited audience.
However, it is well written and does have an important and valid message. I am interested in how coming out of Covid quarantines will affect women's pursuit of youth. I assume that as long as youth continues to be marketed to women that nothing will change. Too bad!

Being a "woman of a certain age" I was curious as to how other women cope with the loss of youth and the attention they may have received while younger. I thought I would be able to relate to the "older face" experiences of those Justine interviewed. And while I could relate to some of the women in the 47 vignettes about how it feels to lose one's looks and then be looked at by society as not having any value, I found too many of the stories were about actresses and high end people who have access to botox, youth serums, plastic surgery etc., in other words, not your average woman dealing with aging. I guess I was looking more for an explanation of how we got to this point of throwing women away after a certain age and was hoping that maybe there was evidence of society changing its view of them in the future. Justine seems to be a very good writer but this book was just not what I was expecting, so maybe my review isn't as fair as it could be.

Seemed to mostly be a rant about how unfair it is that she could not maintain her "fame". Occasionally she would talk with some enthusiasm about the things she's been doing since her fame went away, but overall I think she just wants to be back on top.

I could not relate to this book at all. Bateman seems like an angry person. She ranted on and on and it just didn't keep my attention at all.

I quit reading this book after 100 pages. Instead of an insightful analysis of the consequences of "fame" to me it was a childish rant. The anger flew off of the pages and examples of insults, slights, etc. just didn't measure up to Bateman's tirade. People who become obsessed with celebrities such as the Kardashians might learn something from reading this book but as I have a real life this topic was not one that I could relate to at all.

Fame: The Hijacking of Reality from Justine Bateman both was and was not what I was expecting. I knew it was not simply a tell-all memoir, every blurb made that clear. Yet there were plenty of memoir-ish elements to give it a bit of a memoir feel. I was expecting a fairly straightforward discussion of what fame is and, as the sub-title implies, how it hijacks reality for both the famous and those caught up in worshiping fame from the outside. I did get some of that but it was supplemented by the specifics of how fame affected Bateman. The book took some getting used to and while it could easily have been just a couple hour read I spread it out over a couple days to give it a chance to sink in. Reading a book quickly, especially one that is nonfiction and thus is not simply a story to be gotten through, is not always a positive.

My impression of the book is far more positive than negative. I took her profanity and expressions of how things felt for her to be a glimpse into the personal side of the more negative aspects of fame. During the part of the book where she expressed her emotions openly she generally followed it with how a theorist has or might view the dynamic she had just described. Once I began to look at it within that structure I started to get more from the book. Because of how I think I would have liked a little more theorizing (either her own or others, or both) but I would not have eliminated the open expression of what it felt, and sometimes still feels, like. The combination showed the dynamic between the imposed fame and those affected by it, from fans and acquaintances to those being sprayed with the fame. Were there rants? I don't know that I would call them that, rants usually imply venting with no discernible purpose beyond the pressure relief of venting. Whether the style worked for you or not it did have and served a purpose, so as commonly understood no, I don't consider them rants.

Toward the end of the book there are fewer of the more forceful emotional discussions because in the flow of the overall book we had moved past the chaotic aspect of full blown fame and were dealing with perceiving the differences between fame and accomplishment, between putting the fame away (which is significantly different from having fame taken away, putting it away is more like finishing a book and putting it back on the shelf with only some recollection of what you liked or disliked about it) and dealing with it being constantly measured and reflected back. I did tend to prefer this part of the book but I also think it is because she made the pain and confusion of the chaos of fame so personal that I was happy to be out of the chaos myself.

I would recommend this to readers who are curious about fame beyond just the gossip and headlines. Fame and the culture of fame does not just affect those who are considered famous. Bateman touches on what it does to and says about society as a whole, though the focus is largely on the part with which she is intimately familiar, namely the sudden and all-encompassing fame. While fans of her work will likely enjoy the book I think some may be disappointed that it isn't an actual memoir.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.½

Raise your hand if you LOVED Family Ties as a kid! And had a crush on Alex P. Keaton? And wanted TO BE Mallory!?! Justine Bateman was an idol of mine in the 80's. If I could be like her, or look like her, I pressed my parents to give me a sister just like her! But I got stuck with a brother. Boo!

It's funny, because when I first heard about this book, I said first thing, "Whatever happened to her?" in that snarky, snide voice - like oh, she was has-been, she didn't do anything after Family Ties, she's a one-hit wonder.... And THAT is exactly the type of attitude Justine addresses in this book. (I'm totally sorry for what I said btw Justine and I still love you!)

If you're looking for the behind the scenes secrets and juicy scandal of the beloved sitcom - this is not the book. If you want the scoop on MJ Fox and hanging with child stars of the 80's - nope, not that book either. In fact, one of the first chapters in the book fully explains this - the book is NOT a memoir. It's an exploration of fame. Justine dissects everything from childhood fame in the 80's, to reality star "fame" of today, as well as both the construction AND destruction of fame that social media can make happen. I was fascinated by her take on all things fame. I felt for her - being an actress on a hit TV show, and only being seen for THAT. That her education, and directing, and successes in business mean nothing - cause the "whatever happened to her" mentality translates to - well, if we haven't seen her on TV anymore - she must be a failure in life.

I loved reading this - she's frantic, and passionate, and, OK I'll say it- a bit crazy, yes - but do you blame her? Imagine people saying about you "Boy, she sure has let herself go" on a public forum, on google searches, on Twitter. Just cause the last time they saw her she was 21 - and now she's 50. Well, clearly she's aged - duh. Obviously she doesn't LOOK the same!

I gobbled up every chapter and loved her take on how crazy it is to be famous, but how much crazier it is today. Sure, there's some namedropping, some mentions of Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, and more - and there's even a bunch of color photos in the book that she talks about and references throughout the book, which I loved. I didn't need the juicy gossip, as I felt like it made me understand celebrities more and totally got me out of that mentality of "Oh, they wanted to be in the spotlight, so they are just automatically targets." No. I feel terrible now for ever ragging on a celeb in the spotlight - especially the young ones out there.

But I'm still not laying off the reality "stars" ;) haha.

Justine Bateman has some anger issues! I was hoping to get an insiders view of fame and I did, somewhat, along with a lot of 'F' bombs and angry rants. Justine did touch on some interesting points on how fame has changed over the decades, how Americans put more importance on fame, and she walks us through the steps of losing fame but her ranting conversational style of writing was off putting. Overall the book was a quick read and made me look at fame in a whole new light.

Bateman insists that this book is not a memoir. The word I would use to describe it is a rant. Her pain is very understandable. She clearly harbors a great deal of anger and resentment of how fame and it's decline caused her life and personality to change in a negative way. I am sure many other famous people feel the same. But this is not a thoughtful account of the process. She doesn't seem to have any real understanding of what fame is, only the results. She doesn't explain how the good and bad parts of fame unfold. She writes as though this transformation happened overnight. Part of the problem is with her writing style. It is conversational and reads like a young girl spilling all to her girlfriends with endless repetitions, swearing, and rambling. She needed a good editor.

Justine Bateman insists this is not a memoir early on in the book. And it isn't, not really. But it's also impossible for her not to insert her own experiences into her exploration of the life cycle of fame and theories on why people react they way they do to the famous. I don't think this takes away from the work, but rather helps the reader get to know Bateman as the human she is not just as one of the famous or once very famous. Her stream of consciousness and conversational writing style also helps as she addresses the reader directly. I thought this was a really honest work and useful in examining how reality TV, the internet and social media have changed what it means (and what it takes to be famous).

While Justine Bateman says this is not a memoir, it kind of is. There is a definite attempt to define what FAME is and all the down and up sides to it, but the book is full of circumstances about things that happened to her, with the FAME and then without it.
Personally, FAME doesn't sound like anything I would want or any of the downfall after FAME has gone. Like she states, be who you are and do what you want, be good at what you do.

Fame. It's such an alluring idea. The great goal that many of us secretly dream of achieving. We even start to base our value and success on this idea of fame.

How many likes do you have? How many followers? Viewers? We base our self-esteem on other people's perceptions of us. I am just as guilty of this as anyone. I look at my Instagram and wonder how other bookstagramers have hundreds of followers in a matter of weeks, and feel like a failure.

In Fame: The Hijacking of Reality, Justine Bateman talks about how the various stages of fame affected her life. But first, what is fame anyway? According to Bateman, it is something that society has created. (Like money. And gender.) Basically, it's all in our head. It doesn't really exist. The jittery, ecstatic feeling you get in the pit in your stomach when you catch sight of someone you've happened to see on TV heading into a Starbucks is only because you and society put more value on them than the pediatric orthopedic surgeon also ordering their morning coffee at said Starbucks.

Bateman uses personal experiences to discuss the awkward, scary, and humiliating descent into non-fame, while giving glimpses of what it was like in the glory days and how fame has changed over the years. What fascinated me was how she witnessed the shift in our culture to the celebrity-obsessed, social media frenzy it is today. When she was on TV in the 1980s, paparazzi didn't wait to ambush you taking your garbage out in your pajamas and messy hairdo and then claim that you are in a major depression due to a bad breakup that never happened. Or how social media gives instant access to celebrities in a way that used to involve postage and too much effort to let someone know that you think they look like a cow who contracted smallpox and hope they die.

As you may have noticed, this subject was absolutely fascinating to me and Bateman had me hooked from the first page. It was gritty and raw at times, with a lot of obvious passion. Her style of writing felt as though I wasn't reading her book, but rather she was sitting across from me relaying stories complete with inflections and gesticulations. Sometimes I felt that the F-bombs were a tad over-dropped, and some of the stories were introduced and dismissed too quickly, but the point was always made with a swift punch.

Overall, Bateman's blatant, unapologetic commentary was on point. It reiterated what I already knew about our society being totally messed up, as well as made me examine some of my own ideologies of celebrities. It is a good read, especially if you have the desire to one day reach the status of FAMOUS in big, sparkly letters.

So what’s it like to be famous? We hear and see the horror stories, the lengths stars go to avoid exposure to the public, and at the same time, their absurd efforts to keep their fame going. Justine Bateman aims to analyze it for us from her own experience in Fame. Since her own greatest fame occurred between ages 17 and 24, that makes up most of the book.

Fame is that most desirable state, except for all the people that come with it. Celebrities need to deal with it rationally, but the media are filled with stories of assaults, bar fights, internet trolling and stalking. Bateman tries to distill it all from her personal experience. That makes this a valuable document.

There are some interesting insights. When in public, keep moving. If you stop, people will surround you and you are toast. On the red carpet, keep moving. As soon as the camera-clicking audibly begins to slow, move off. Above all, try not to say what you really want to. Just be polite, despite everything. Despite them grabbing your arm, stroking your hair, inviting you home, or telling you their fantasies about you.

In North America, you’re only as famous as your last hit. In Europe, you can be famous for one accomplishment all the rest of your life.

She is, inevitably, conflicted. On the one hand she treasures her fame. She is jealous of up and comers who have more of it. On the other hand, she detests fame and all the irrationals criticism of her body, her face, and of her declining fame itself. She googles her name and becomes infuriated at trolls. She takes it seriously and personally. On the other hand, she thinks she has become a much more interesting person since fame has become less of a factor in her life. She has a pilot’s license, a diver’s license, an undergrad degree, and has been in films, plays and has directed – all since her fame began to decline. What really galls her is being treated like a potential troll/stalker by other celebrities, since she is no longer one of them, and they don’t recognize her for who she used to be.

Bateman’s writing style is somewhat bothersome. She loves to repeat the same sentences. Repeat the same sentences. It quickly becomes annoying. She loves capitalizing phrases and whole sentences: “I planned to COME HERE TO TELL YOU a thing or two.” Pointless emphasis at best, head-scratching most of the time. She swears continually, adding nothing of interest. The book would be a quarter shorter without all the repetition and the four letter words.

Bateman misses the privilege now, but she’s a fuller person without it, and recommends everyone steer clear of Fame as a goal in itself. Just pursue what you love or do best.

David Wineberg