Customer Reviews

On the Couch

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book should be sold in audio form only! Bracco's memoir is read straight from the heart, in her raspy Brooklyn accent. She owns these stories and reflections and tells them in a mesmerizing voice. While I was enjoying this audio book, I often found myself pulling into the garage and sitting there for extended periods of time, unable to tear myself away from Bracco's captivating life story.

On the Couch is the story of an amazing woman who continues to live life to its fullest. Bracco was a gawky Long Island teenager whose wildest dreams game true when a modeling agency took a chance on her. As a hard-working model in Paris, she was shocked when someone suggested trying out for an acting role. She had no belief that modeling prepared her for acting in any way (how refreshing!), and, as it turned out, her acting career was a long, hard climb. Any woman or modern professional will be able to identify to Bracco's experiences with a childhood in suburbia, early romances, her early twenties in Paris, choices between different career paths, the sting of being fired or rejected for a job, motherhood, and the process of seeking and growing through therapy. Yes, she also happens to be TV's most famous fictional psychiatrist, and an Oscar-nominated actress, but that's all just part of her life experience.

The listener (or reader) will glean some fascinating insight into the industry, including the large differences between television and film sets, the process of filming a pilot and negotiating with studios, the tug-of-war between true genius and unadulterated schmoozing, and the sigma of dyslexia and other conditions in the cut-throat world of acting. Don't pick this one up expecting to get any Hollywood dirt, though! Bracco's anecdotes focus on positive influences, such as the time Sean Connery made her Cinderella for evening, funny stories about times on set, and unforgettable advice and encouragement she received over the last several decades. This is no sugar-coated story, however, and Bracco owns up to her own weakness and mistakes on many occasions.

I'm recommending this book to my mom and her peers, who are the same age as Bracco, and to my girlfriends, who could use these sage reflections on young life and the outcome of various career and life choices. One of the most important topics in this book is therapy, including Bracco's firsthand experience realizing that depression isn't one big black monster, but a slowly-creeping condition. She gives essential advice about the process of growth in therapy, and how one may need to move on to a new counseling provider as they progress through the process.

If Lorraine Braco's memoir helps readers escape from the stigma that STILL exists (but shouldn't) when it comes to seeking treatment for depression, she'll have done a great service - especially when there are celebrities like Tom Cruise around to argue that depression can be treated solely with vitamins and exercise. Sorry, Tom, but not in every case.
Bracco writes very honestly of her experiences and of how the depression crept into her life. She wasn't used to it, didn't have a long history of battling any sort of mental illness. It was hard for her to reach out for help. A lot of people should be able to relate to that. So often people seem to think they should "tough out" mental disorders when they wouldn't think twice of getting help for pneumonia or a broken bone.
I also like the fact that Bracco is open about using anti-depressants but offers hope to those who don't want to be on them all their lives. In her case, the depression may have been brought on by a whole host of incredible stresses - two divorces, a daughter who kept running mysterious high fevers, etc - and medication and therapy helped her get her life back in balance. In time, she was able to wean herself off the medications.
True, not everyone with depression can stay off medication but Bracco's book reveals that there are levels of depression and that there is no shame in reaching out for help, whether one suffers from chronic or short term depression. Her writing style is excellent and the book is vivid and very real.

What a great book. I got this earlier in Australia and have read it in record time for me for a biography. It's a very interesting look at a great actress' life.
There is so much that you may not know about her , but there has been a lot of drama in her life. This memoir is revealing and sometimes shocking. She wanted to write this in celebration of herself and celebration of motherhood and because there are things here she believes can help other people.
She talks a fair bit about her relationship with Harvey Keitel and how serious their relationship was early on and it resulted in the birth of their daughter. She had met him in 1983 in Paris, and was immediately drawn to him. She writes how she slept with him on the first night. Later down the track there was a major custody battle for their daughter. She was also married to Edward James Almos for a while. She wrote how he was accused of molesting the child of a friend of hers, but she says it was a shakedown to get money out of her. It impacted her custody battle for her daughter and made her question everything in her life.
During her career at one stage, she had to even file for Chapter 11 because she wasn't getting good roles.
She talks about how nice Sean Connery was to her the year of Goodfellas. She was in Mexico, but gave her time-share on his plane to get her back to LA because he wouldn't let her miss the Oscars.
She writes about her major funk during the first season of Sopranos. Medication, therapy and family love got her through that.
It's an amazing book with a lot of interesting information that you probably never knew. She's such a great actress and it's always fun to read about their personal lives to see that they are as human as we all are. I really recommend this great read to everyone. It's very good.

I wasn't expecting to pick this book up. I'm a huge Sopranos and Goodfellas fan but I'm not one for celeb bios. However, I skimmed this in the bookstore and ended up buying it right away, a rarity for me. Lorraine Bracco has a great conversational tone and her earnestness, openness and sense of humor make for a fast, enjoyable and often inspirational read. She offers some advice culled from her own experiences and insights but it never comes off as preachy. She really believes in what she's saying and that comes off on the page.

I really liked this book, A LOT.

She is an amazing woman, I think. She dealt with an awful lot of things that would make many other people crumble. Even though she ended up pretty down from it, she wasn't OUT!

Her journey was at times sad for me to read, I honestly felt her pain. She seems like she is an super good human being, and she fought to stay that way. Also, it is a good story of how she LOVES her kids! WOW, very nice! A lot of LOVE in this book!

I love her spunk and her determination! And her insights and lessons learned have caused a bell to go off inside me, or a light to come on....I think it is great that in the telling of her story she is trying to help others! To use some of her words, I GOT HER!

LORRAINE BRACCO....YOU ROCK! YOU GO GIRL!

When you see Lorraine Bracco on screen she steals your heart, whether it in against Sean Connery in Medicine Man to facing Tony Soprano on the couch..she knows how to act.

Now when recanting an abridgement of her own audio biography, why does she morfs into a clone of Fran Drescher? For a actress of her talent to whine out her own words is unproffessional.

There is an old adage, a person should not narrate his or her biography to audio. In the case of this book, they are correct. Bracco's true life tale is interesting at best.

However in her vocal hands, it shows no depth. With her whinning voice, In the audio neighborhood where Roseanne Barr and Fran Drescher have previous tread, Bracco's lifeless voice is recanting her story depresses the listenership very easy

I give it 3 stars for the biography itself..and not its narrator

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

First of all, let me say I was glad Lorraine Bracco decided to write a book about her depression. But I was so hoping for more about the depression itself. The first chapter grabbed me and I was very excited, thinking the book would be a sort of step by step, day to day or month to month journey with Lorraine out of her depression. I love biography so I did enjoy reading about her life as it unfolded but the book really did become much more of an autobiography than a story of one woman's excursion through darkness and despair into the light. But I suppose this was really a problem of my own expectations.

That familiar low husky voice draws you in. Yes, it's decidedly sexy but also firm, determined. Listening to actress/author Lorraine Bracco read her memoir is very much like hearing from an old friend not only because of the familiarity of the voice but because she trusts you, completely confides in you, revealing her past, her present, and her hopes for the future.

As the world surely knows Bracco plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi on one of the biggest hits HBO has ever offered, The Sopranos. When David Chase, the show's creator-producer first called Bracco he wanted her to play Carmela, Tony Soprano's wife. Despite the fact that she was some 2 million dollars in debt thanks to a lengthy custody battle, she declined. After all, she thought she'd been there, done that - played a mobster's wife in Goodfellas and won an Oscar nomination for role.

Taking a stand like that is typical for today's Bracco who knows who she is and says now that she's reached 50 she doesn't have to answer to anyone but herself. She's come a long way since being voted "the ugliest girl in the sixth grade." The path hasn't always been easy and she's frank about all the obstacles and detours that came her way.

Although she said no to playing Carmela, the part she wanted was that of Dr. Melfi as she felt she related to her, could understand this character. We all know she got the part and plays it to the hilt.

Today, in addition to her television work she appears on Broadway (lately as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate) and in numerous films. Plus, she is now launching her own line of wines.

Quite a story, quite a life, and quite a woman - enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This is a great bio. Ms Bracco tells it straight out about her career, love life and kids. Of course there is another side to the story of what Harvey Keitel and Edward James Almos feel about her, so we wait for their books to come out one day. She focused a little too much on GOODFELLAS, I felt, even though its a huge film for her. That was the only part I fet was in need of editing.

I enjoyed the book. It was just like having lunch with a
friend and talking. Her story was helpful to anyone with
a problem of depression.