Then Again by Diane Keaton

As you all know, who read this blog regularly, I do not read a lot of nonfiction books.  Reading is my recreation and escape and I love escaping into a story.  I can't even remember when or why I put this book on hold at the library.

I opened the book and began reading the first chapter, "Think" which is an introduction. It begins, "Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on the a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she'd collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK."

From that first paragraph I could not put this book down.  When I did need to put it down, I found myself thinking about Diane Keaton's words and stories. This is Diane Keaton's memoir as well as her mother, Dorothy Keaton Hall's biography.  Diane's mother kept journals...85 journals.  Her journals told the story of her life, her children as well as her parents.  Diane seamlessly weaves the story of four generations of family gleamed from her own life as well as the stories her mother told in those 85 journals.

The second thing I did with this book after reading this first chapter/introduction is look at the pictures.  The first set of photos are Dorothy's journals which many times are in the form of collages along side typed sheets of her own words.  I love collages.  It quickly becomes apparent that this was a woman who was "restless with intellectual and creative energy" (from the book jacket).

Diane Keaton is ten years older then me.  Her films are significant milestones in my generation's filmography. Her relationships are well known and point to pop culture icons. It was fun seeing behind the scenes of Annie Hall, Reds and of course, The Godfather trilogy. She writes about being a woman looking for her own family, coping with the ups and downs of a film/acting career. She writes about her own creativity.

One thing Diane shares with her mother is unending insecurity and the constant feeling of not being good enough.  The other aspect that Diane shares with Dorothy is her belief in the power of love and family. Dorothy created a traditional family in the eyes of our society. Diane created a nontraditional family late in life, saying, “I never found a home in the arms of a man."  She adopted two children starting at the age of 50 and then again at 55.  They have brought her the kind of family she has looked for all her life.

This book also chronicles Dorothy's progress into the horrors of Alzheimer’s and her family's way of helping her through her long process toward her death.

I had just seen Kate Winslet in Mildred Pierce which is about a woman who makes her own way in Depression era Los Angeles. A single working mother of two. Diane Keaton's paternal grandmother had to do the same thing. That is the other aspect I loved about this book.  It was one family's story of the 1900's.  Not an unfamiliar story and definitely easy to relate to.

Finally, I did not know how much Woody Allen took from Diane's real family in his writing and directing of Annie Hall.