Now [Hardcover]

Lauren Bacall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 1994

"CANDID AND HONEST...A philosophical looking-backward and forward--an inquiry into the question 'Is that all there is?' "
--Liz Smith
New York Newsday
"FRANK AND AMUSING...[AND] BRIMMING WITH CONFESSIONS...Part career memoir and part meditation on what it's like to be a single woman of lingering glamour, enduring vitality and advancing age...The book has the Bacall voice behind it. Her writing echoes her deep, sardonic, no-nonsense timbre and jazzy tempo....Bacall is at her best when talking about friends she has loved and watched die. Bernstein, she says, was more than a little seductive; Huston, more than a little remote; Olivier, a survivor to the end."
--Chicago Sun-Times
"HER PROSE IS SPARE AND HONEST....A kaleidoscope of thoughts and ideas on loneliness, aging, and above all, surviving...There are also poignant reminiscences of the golden years of Hollywood and many of its leading creators."
--The Washington Post Book World
"SHE REMINDS US OF SOME FAMILIAR TRUTHS WORTH ATTENDING TO. . . .What she's writing about, Ms. Bacall explains, is 'life' and indeed her musings about getting older, about intimations of mortality, about living solo, about letting go of one's children will resonate with women who, like her, are of a certain age."
--The New York Times Book Review
"ENGROSSING. . .POIGNANT."
--People


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's been 15 years since Bacall wrote By Myself, a rich, if necessarily incomplete, autobiography that contained immensely touching accounts of the life of her husband, Humphrey Bogart, and of his painful death in 1957. In her new memoir, she makes it clear that she still judges people and life by Bogart's standards-high ones. Her narrative is fragmentary, almost breathless, but full of raw personality and almost clumsy directness. Two topics weave in and out of the staccato story: motherhood and acting. Bacall's accounts of her theatrical triumphs (Cactus Flower, Applause) and failures (Franklin Street, Good-bye Charlie) are more engaging than her reports of the deep concern she has for her three children (a son and daughter from her marriage with Bogart, and the youngest, the son of Jason Robards). She tends to share details only a mother needs to know. But her dedication to acting-and she means the stage, not the screen-is engrossing: "Acting requires boldness," she tells us. "Laying your life on the line eight times a week is not for the meek and mild." Bacall is certainly not meek. She is brave enough to present her life without excuses. Photos not seen by PW. 200,000 first printing; BOMC selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Bacall wants the world to know who she is now: not merely a famous celluloid image, or Humphrey Bogart's other half, but a woman who has experienced both loss and achievement in her career as well as in her personal life. With such an aim in mind, her new book reads almost as an extended footnote to her more comprehensive autobiography, Lauren Bacall by Myself (LJ 2/1/79). She fills gaps in the chronology of her first book with sensitive ruminations on her family life, her marriages to Bogart and Jason Robards, her friendships with the likes of Laurence Olivier and John Huston, and her stage, screen, and television projects. Her unconventional stream-of-consciousness approach occasionally seems undisciplined. Yet, despite such foibles, her forthright style is honest, engaging, and often poignant as she speaks of career highs and hiatuses, of loneliness and love. Readers who want to know about Bacall's early career should refer to her first book. For the quiet reflections of a true star, Now is the book to read. Recommended for popular biography collections. [BOMC main selection.]-Jayne Plymale-Jackson, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athen.
--Jayne Plymale-Jackson, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (September 27, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679436863
• ISBN-13: 978-0394574127
• ASIN: 0394574125
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,771,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good followup to "By Myself.", April 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Now (Mass Market Paperback)

"Now" isn't as fulfilling as was "By Myself" but is still a good short read for anyone interested in Lauren Bacall. The book covers the 15 years after her first publication "By Myself." If you're new to Lauren I would suggest reading "By Myself" first and if you would like to see a more personal side of the actress give this book a try.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read the other one first, February 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Now (Mass Market Paperback)

Read Bacall's "By Myself" before this - she writes as if she assumes that you have. She actually rehashes a lot of what she wrote in that book: her work on Broadway, people in her life, etc. I didn't necessarily mind that - I read this one directly after the other so it complemented it. I would've found it very slight by itself, though. In this one she also talks about putting together her dream home and finding it lacking, and about her grown kids and their lives, some other topics too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History Teacher's Review, May 25, 2006

By 

Rachel D. Dvorkin (Elgin, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Now (Mass Market Paperback)

Bacall, Lauren.
Now
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
214 pp., $23.00. ISBN 0-394-57412-5
Publication Date September 1994

Lauren Bacall, is a screen legend, has been a star of movies, television, and theater for over sixty years and her book tells the story of how she feels about her work, her children,
her homes, her acting, her friends, and more.

The introduction of the book gives a glimpse into what her life was like between the ages of forty and sixty, how she has lived her life and the impact people she has met have had on her life. She views life at 70 as a survivor and considered herself lucky to still be acting at all.

Ms. Bacall does not know what she would do with herself if she did not work. She views working as a reason to get up out of bed, if your working you can pay the bills. The most important thing is that when you work in a movie, on television, or on stage you'll always be doing something you love to do.

She is grateful for being close to her daughter Leslie Bogart. She is more in love with her grandchildren from her sons Steve Bogart and Sam Robards then she ever thought possible.

She has realized late in life that she needs her children which surprises her. She examines all the fears that she went through in getting a country house in Amagansett. Once she had it then she spent years continually making as many changes to it as
possible. In the end when she sold it she realized she had spent more time living in other places than this house.

She recognizes that the older she gets the more difficult it is for her to be able to still get great roles, she realizes that work is much harder physically. She is human and points out body parts that have changed and is really comfortable with this.

She comes to terms with her own mortality and how hard it is to still be alive when so many of her friends are now gone. Her life has come full circle, her daughter Leslie got married.
Her son Steve is married with 3 wonderful kids. Her son Sam's marriage ended, but she knows he will find someone else.

In the end she is still alone and she is reconciled to the fact that she no longer wants that for herself anymore. She is always the eternal optimist and thinks that maybe there is someone out there for her. She is a strong woman who has done it her way and not followed all the rules of Hollywood.

She still considers Humphrey Bogart to have been the love of her life and will never get over his death.
Rachel D. Dvorkin
Elgin, Illinois