My Mother's Keeper [Hardcover]

B. D. Hyman (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (November 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068804798X
• ISBN-13: 978-0688047986
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 92 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Puh-leeze,BD!, August 21, 2004

By 

Waxen Wayne "reads much" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Mother's Keeper (Hardcover)

This book was admittedly written not by Mrs Hyman, but her husband Jeremy. Jeremy has never found it hard to resist good, honest labor & therefore this book was the Hymans' (only) cash cow once they'd bled Bette Davis dry. Ms. Davis--according to many sources--paid for the Hymans' home, upkeep, swimming pool, private schools for their son and family vacations. This was true even after Ms Davis was on in years and in poor health.Instead of marrying at 16, perhaps Mrs Hyman might have gotten an education, a job, and an ambitious husband so she didn't have to live off of the mother she so criticized. Apparently there is a sequel to this book that tells of the Hymans' miraculous new faith and how it took them from rural Pennsylvania to Grand Bahama Island. Ommitted from the book are public records detailing just how, why and under what shady circumstances the Hymans fled Pennsylvania.(To pay off your debts FIRST with your $100,000 advance might have been the Christian thing to do, folks).
I DO enjoy the many reviews that the Hymans have penned themselves or had their flock write. Forget the scathing reviews, Jeremy, and GET A JOB.

125 of 142 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars WHY SHE WROTE THIS SHAMEFUL BOOK, June 7, 2003

By 

Lisa M. Drayton "lmd" (ny, ny United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Mother's Keeper (Hardcover)

Everyone here who has already mentioned how unintentionally hilarious this book is-- right on! Yet it is also a tragically exploitative book; as opposed to the genuine anguish depicted in "Mommie Dearest." While Christina Crawford may or may not have been motivated by revenge in writing her book, she actually had something legitimate to avenge. There has been ample evidence from countless sources-- family, professional associates of her mother's, and subsequent bigraphers --that the horrors Christina catalogued were far from fictional. B.D. Hyman, on the other hand, has received no such affirmation. With very few exceptions, even those who agreed that she had every reason to resent her mother's faults were concerned by the manner in which the truth was manipulated in MMK. As nearly every Bette Davis biography written subsequent to MMK's publication has evidenced, B.D. Hyman, her husband, & her sons were COMPLETELY DEPENDENT UPON BETTE DAVIS FINANCIALLY. The fact that Bette Davis had NO CHOICE but to work to support the Hyman family, despite advancing age & its attendent diminished career options, goes far in explaining much of the tension between Davis & her daughter, not to mention Davis's well-chronicled antagonism toward her son-in-law-- a man who had not maintained consistent gainful employment since the mid-late '60s. This is all documented in various Davis biographies published after 1985. By her own admission, Hyman decided to write MMK only AFTER witnessing the extent of Davis' recovery from two strokes & a mastectomy due to cancer. Fearful that her mother would no longer be able to work/support her (just prior to her illness Davis had saved the Hyman farm from foreclosure), Hyman decided to cash in. Even after receiving a six figure advance for MMK, the Hymans were still in such a bad financial situation that they didn't sell their farm before relocating to the Bahamas; they abandoned it for the bank to reclaim in their absence. HAD SHE MENTIONED THE EXTENT OF HER FAMILY'S FINANCIAL DEPENDENCE ON HER MOTHER IN MMK, DO YOU THINK ANYONE WOULD HAVE EVEN BOTHERED TO PUBLISH THIS SHAMEFUL ABORTION? Bette wasn't a particularly good parent during BD's childhood or adulthood, but nothing in the book or in any book about Bette justifies the treachery of BD writing this book in her mother's lifetime. Financial necessity & the sense of entitlement of all spoiled, over-indulged children drove her to it. As Bette herself concluded, "B.D. thought I was going to die. That's why she wrote the book."

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ungrateful overgrown brat makes money hurting celebrity mom!, March 10, 2002

By 

Marsena Cook (Birmingham, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: My Mother's Keeper (Hardcover)

When I first read My Mother's Keeper, I was about 14 years old. Being young and naive, I almost believed Hyman's tale of woe about her famous mother. Thank God for being alive 15 years later. I have read the book about more than five times since then, strictly for comic relief.
So Bette Davis endured an abusive marriage while B.D. was a little girl, wasn't the Betty Crocker mom, drank too much, and was occasionally obnoxious at the dinner table. So Bette Davis had faults (gasp!). Wow!
...After all her mother did for her and gave her long after she was married, and this is how she repaid her. From the other Davis biographies I've read, B.D. needed her mother to shower her with gifts because her son-in-law was a lazy bum!
Bette Davis is still one of greatest American actresses for all time, and that is how I will remember her in spite of her faults. When B.D. passes away, she'll be blessed if anyone even cares.