Customer Reviews

It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You're From

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I am really enjoying reading this book. It is very well written, and gives a glimpse into the life of Jaime Pressly. The book tells how growing up in the south, and the people in her life shaped who she is. The book is an easy read, and very entertaining.

Let me say first that I am from Jaime's hometown of Kinston, NC so I read the book with that bias. I know the places she speaks of intimately, some of the people and - although I am 8 years older than Jaime and have never met her as far as I am aware - I attended all the same schools in Kinston that she did. While I haven't seen him in many years, I am acquainted with her older brother "Junior" (as she refers to him in the book). My friend Cheryl used to baby sit for Jaime. My nephew has waited on her at a local greasy spoon restaurant where Jaime sometimes eats when she returns to Kinston. Anyway, what I am trying to say is that there are multiple connections - the biggest being the town itself - and for those alone I was bound to enjoy Jaime's book. I found it engaging and insightful and it took me "back home" (both in place and time). Despite the critique of her book that follows, I found the book worth the read, certainly if you are a fan and especially if you've ever had the desire to break the ties that bind you in place for the sake of discovering something bigger.

The first time I saw Jaime was in a magazine - Playboy to be exact - and she was totally naked. The odd thing was that the magazine was owned by the mother of a friend of mine, the stuffy, pampered wife of a prominent local lawyer. The magazine was lying on the kitchen table prominently displayed. I had never heard of Jaime at that point so my friend's mother pointed out that she was a local girl who'd "made it big". She handed me the magazine and I flipped through it. "Wow", I said. "I don't know her, but I sure do wish I did". Still, I was not sure whether my friend's mother had obtained this magazine for the sake of pride, curiosity or for the promise of good gossip. I suspected the latter.

The next time I saw Jaime - a couple of years later - was in the movie "Poison Ivy 3". I had heard about this movie from other folks in Kinston - often said with a smirk - and knew that it was somewhat risqué. Still, I was shocked when I saw it. Jaime - who plays a vengeful sibling of the `Ivy' from the original movie starring Drew Barrymore - is FULLY naked for a significant part of the movie. Her character seduces the boyfriend and the father of the girl she is living with in scenes so steamy that many have called it soft porn. Again, connecting with her as a young girl from my hometown, I had to wonder whether Jaime had been duped into taking this role, whether she had been taken advantage of in some way. I could hear it in my head: "You want to be a big star, right? Then this is where it starts. You've got to do this. It's just acting." I'm making this up, of course, but this was my concern. Since then, Jaime has made further appearances in Playboy and in other men's magazines clad in "near nothing".

As I read Jaime's book, I kept hoping she would make some sense of her thinking with these career choices. There is a scene in the book where Jaime goes to a California beach for the first time and is shocked and embarrassed by how scantily clad the girls are. But when it comes to the place in her story when she would have been posing for Playboy or filming "Poison Ivy 3" she glosses over these, referring vaguely to "modeling" she was doing and "films" she was working on. How, I wanted to know, was she able to set aside the values she was brought up with in that small town among all the family members she so lovingly describes and appear fully naked, intimately posed and engaged in simulated sex acts in photos and on film for all the world to see? Was it desperation? Or was it, as I thought before, that she was somehow taken advantage of. Given the naïvete' displayed by Jamie as she describes herself at that time period in her book, I can't help but think the latter. This aspect of Jaime's career is much too prominent to just skip over, and it leaves a true hole in her story. In fact, it is important enough that it's omission puts her sincerity in question. Just search for her book on Amazon and you'll get her book followed by several Playboy covers. It is a strange juxtaposition to see simultaneously the thoughtful little girl sitting cross-legged on the rock (her book cover) with the voluptuous supermodel hugged in a tight, wet partially transparent shirt. For many people, Jaime is more recognized for her spreads in Playboy than for her current success on "My Name is Earl". Even my 75-year-old father, upon seeing my copy of Jaime's book, quipped "Where is the centerfold?" I understand that the book is written for her son, but he, too, will one day ask the same questions and will, very likely, have to contend with questions from friends as well.

Still, with her character Joy, Jaime has come back home. Despite her desire to leave Kinston (a desire shared by many of us), it is the Kinston aspect of her that brings Joy to life. You can take the girl out of Kinston, they say, but you can't take the Kinston out of the girl. Joy is a great character, Jaime's best, and we from Kinston (whether still there or not) are very proud of her for it. We support her and love her fiercely and will continue to no matter what.

Okay, what are you waiting for? Buy it and read it!!

The book is an easy read and is rather like sitting and listening to Jaime tell how her life unfolded to make her who she is today. I think I am most impressed with how comfortable she is with who she is and that choices she has made, right or wrong, either in her eyes or others are part of what we face everyday and that you use what you learn to grow and move on. I came away from the book, not only having "heard" an enjoyable story of her life but with the desire to be more honest with myself and focused on what I want my life to be and not what others think it should be. The advice is good ... dream bigger than the town you're from!

Pressley wrote this book as a family history for her newborn son, so anyone who is not her child may find very little of interest, and I bet her own son won't be interested in it until he's 40 or so because it's going to be about family back in North Carolina that he never met since he's going to grow up in Los Angeles, the child of a minor celebrity.

Every Southern family has a story and a bunch of characters. I lived for awhile in Greenville, which is right to the east of Kinston, so this is familiar, and not particularly fascinating, territory. What is amazing is Pressly's odd string of luck. There are literally thousands and thousands of blond girls in the Carolinas who look identical to Jaime, yet when she sent her photos to various modeling agencies when she was a young teen, she actually got one response that put her on the cover of Teen magazine. Then when she decides she wants to move to California and try to be an actress and model before she's even 15, her mother leaves her father and moves her there! Wish that happened to me! Then when her mother and her mother's boyfriend want to kick her out so they can have their own life, she moves in with a girlfriend whose parents become like the best parents anyone would ever want! Then she gets an agent before she hardly even knows she needs one, and a lawyer, and an accountant. So it takes 15 years of modeling and secondary roles in little known movies and TV shows, but then she wins an Emmy!

Now, I only knew from reading someone else's review here that between the age 15 part and the Emmy, she did nude modeling, was in Playboy, and was very naked in a lot of movies. She leaves all that out, of course, because this book is for her son. She also leaves out all the boyfriends except the first and last ones. And hardly anything is said at all about working on "My Name is Earl" except how she passed the audition. In fact, she writes just about zero about any movies or TV shows she made.

Several years ago, there was a long article in The New Yorker about struggling to make it in Hollywood which was mostly about Pressly, and I learned more about her and what it's like to be at the fringes, only getting nibbles, never quite getting that big break, from that article than I learned from this whole book.

Can't recommend it. But if her son ever has a daughter, she might be interested in reading it. Another GLARING OMISSION: No photos at all! Except for the book jacket, there's nothing! This book was really published on the cheap.

It's Not Necessarily Not the Truth: Dreaming Bigger Than the Town You're From

I am about halfway through this book, and I admit it is a good book but don't get it if you think it's a comedy. It really isn't. Jaime is very intelligent and shows it with her use of language. I relate to a lot of the stories because I am also from a small town. It's a good read, but don't grab it if you think it's a comedy.

I enjoyed this book. It was entertaining and easy to read. Her story is inspirational. 5 Stars!