Actress of a Certain Age - Jeff Hiller

Written By Mona Angéline

Boy am I late with this review. Jeff Hiller's memoir, Actress of a Certain Age, came out four days ago! But I came here to say it's stunning. If you're like me, not all that enthused by gaudy celebrity memoirs, this one might hit home. Hiller has been through life, alright, and it made him into a multifaceted human being with a down-to-earth story to tell.

Now, who even is Jeff Hiller? Guess what, I didn't know either when Simon and Schuster sent over this galley. So I went to work and binged his show, Somebody Somewhere (or was it Something Someone, Jeff?), Turns out he's one of the most endearing actors I've seen in a long time. Why it takes hardworking and talented people of authenticity decades to land a key role is beyond me, but I'm glad it worked out, so he could tell his story of attaining fame after age forty.

From childhood in conservative Texas to the makings of a career in Manhattan, Astoria (hello!), and LA, this memoir is chock full of comedic relief from Hiller's deeper sorrows, and reading it followed by watching the show made me escape my own.

What a treat to see Hiller in a most authentic light on TV after reading what it took him to make it in front of those cameras. Thank you for writing this!

In gratitude to Simon and Schuster for the Advance Reader's Copy.

Mona Angéline

Mona Angéline is an unapologetically vulnerable writer, reader, book reviewer, artist, athlete, and scientist. She honors the creatively unconventional, the authentically "other". She shares her emotions because the world tends to hide theirs. She is a new writer, but her work was recently accepted in Flash Fiction Magazine, Grand Dame Literary, tiny wren lit, Down in the Dirt Magazine, The Viridian Door, The Machine, Whisky Blot Magazine, and The Academy of Mind and Heart. She loves to review books and has written them for the /tƐmz/ Review, the Ampersand Review, and the Beakful Litblog. Sooner or later she will have to condense this list… Mona is also a regular guest editor for scientific journals although she doesn't use a pen name when her engineering PhD degree is involved. She lives bicoastally in Santa Cruz, California, and in New York and savors life despite, or maybe because of, her significant struggles with chronic illness and mild disability. Learn about her musings at creativerunnings.com. Follow her on Instagram under @creativerunnings and on Twitter at @creativerunning.

https://creativerunnings.com
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