Undiscovered [Hardcover]

Debra Winger (Author), Phillippe Petit (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2008

Celebrated for her indelible, Oscar-caliber performances in some of the most memorable films of the 1980s and 1990s, Debra Winger, in Undiscovered, her first book, demonstrates that her creative range extends from screen to page. Here is an intimate glimpse of an artist marvelously wide-ranging in her gifts.

In fact, as this beguiling book reveals, Winger is that rare star who dared to resist the all-consuming industry that is Hollywood becoming her entire reason for being. "I love the work," she states, "and don't much care for the business." Yet she cares deeply for the people who have inspired her. We meet them (most famously, James Bridges, Bernardo Bertolucci; most dearly, her mother, husband, and sons) here, as Winger passionately makes her case for forging a life beyond acting -- and shows how she has done just that. Winger's screen performances have long been celebrated for their breathtaking emotional range, a quality that shines through in these pages. "When I was little," she writes, "someone told me that when you age, you turn into the person you were all your life." In this intriguing mix of reminiscence, poetry, storytelling, and insightful observation, a portrait of a life well-lived is strikingly rendered.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this lyrical, meditative memoir, film actress Winger (of Urban Cowboy, Terms of Endearment and others) employs a distinct voice-whimsical but economic, wise but restless, stylized but warm-to explore episodes from her life as a mother, daughter and actress. In short chapters and poems, each engaging and thoughtfully composed, fans will enjoy a few personal glimpses behind the scenes of her early work, but movie making isn't the focus: "I love the work and don't much care for the business." Much of the text is devoted to family, motherhood and life in the country, but she expounds insightfully on the creative process and her desire to "light up the shadowy places, translate the unspoken, and allow it all to live together on the same page." Illustrations of doors (by famed Twin Towers tightrope walker Philippe Petit) complement the text nicely, if never directly. Though it's not for everyone, this slim volume should definitely click with an artistic or literary audience, and will give unsuspecting moviegoers a surprising new appreciation for Winger's talents.
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Preface

It is a beautiful spring day in May, and I am pruning my boxwoods. I planted them seven years ago with the intention of having a major topiary experience, but most years I find myself editing them to their most essential square. When pruning boxwoods, it is recommended that you not cut into the leaf. You must find the "Y" in the twig and cut it from there, otherwise you risk harming the shrub's growth. I find this small yet precise move, leading to a large overall effect, very familiar.

A dozen years ago the question of where I was going got louder than anything else in my head. My life had taken a certain trajectory into the world of films and stardom when I was quite young, and I hadn't stopped to question it. But in truth, it was like wanting a pony for your birthday and getting a big shiny merry-go-round instead.

Although I have participated in the odd film project here and there over the last twelve years, I had no real desire to hop back on that merry-go-round. I watched others as they grabbed for the golden ring and felt fine out in the country on my pony. It is a strange experience to be so in a certain world, and then not. I tried to imagine how to start anew.

I collected doors: odd ones from barns, farms, homes, and from my travels. I have dreamed of them in the forest, imagining myself walking through just the right one when I need a boost. I see them as thresholds to newness. Transformations can begin with a start.

Once, my friend and mentor James Bridges found me hiding under the covers, as I often did when I finished a job. I always felt that the roles I accepted must be inextricably linked to my life if I were to keep finding the passion to fuel each job. I had been to the desert making a film, and now everything in my life looked different. He quoted, "She took to her bed to lose her looks."

Charles Dickens, I think. It always made me smile. I could never quite decide if it was about the way the world looked at me or about the way I looked at the world.

I am always searching for the next door, the next role, the next change.

But right now I am pruning boxwoods, twelve to be exact, and I am wondering just how long it will take my mind to stop chattering and allow me to write. A fat red robin with the most laughably blue eggs in its nest is flying to the mud beneath the mailbox, hunting worms like letters from the earth. I want her to come and write this preface.

This morning in May, I am cutting boxwoods, pre-face and after-words on the threshold of my slender volume, with no instructions, directives, or map -- just a sort of pruning of a dozen years to their essential square. Copyright © 2008 by Debra Winger

Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Simon & Schuster Hardcover Ed edition (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416572678
• ISBN-13: 978-1416572671
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite Reflections from Top Actress, June 15, 2008

By 

JordanJasper - See all my reviews

This review is from: Undiscovered (Hardcover)

Winger has always been a thoughtful, and, in many ways, mercurial actress. There is no question about her onscreen chops as a triple Oscar-nomineee and major star despite a rambling, choosy, relatively sporadic resume.

Then again, Winger's wonderfully versatile choices (and performances) have stood the test of time ('Terms of Endearment,' 'Officer & A Gentleman,' 'Shadowlands,' and 'Urban Cowboy'--even delicious second-tier fare like 'Black Widow'). Perhaps Hollywood's current crop of mediocre talents could take a life-lesson from the gifted Winger, in this regard: scrutinize your destiny, your integrity, choose what lasts.

This book is Winger's very compelling way of doing just that, in essay form. Winger demonstrates that her way with the written word is well nigh as charismatic as her way with a line of film dialogue. Naturally, it helps that she was thrust into myriad adventures by her success in the 80s and 90s (and has something of immediate interest to "play-off of"), but the book works just as convincingly as a document of sometimes aching human self-discovery. Winger is able to recount mood and mayhem with the skill of a charming raconteur and technique of a solid writer.

In fact, I'm pleasantly surprised at how good a writer Winger proves herself to be. The book moves, almost dreamlike, from reflective episode to incisive commentary, and not necessarily with a strict chronological purpose--these are essays from the very soul, after all. Winger is by turns funny and subtly provocative, and, of course, takes time to drop an appropriate number of industry names and anecdotes for those more interested in her career self-perception than with the equally direct assessment of her close family life...a life away from the shackles of fame.

In many ways, this is one of the more rewarding and exceptionally written memoirs to come directly from a major film star in recent memory. Winger infuses the book with wisdom and honesty; apparently she's not only earned it--she's chosen it, and that makes an impact here. The reader comes away with the feeling that one has been given a rare opportunity to glimpse the journey of a genuinely attuned "Traveller" through Hollywood and beyond, rather than a caricature of Hollywood overwhelming a Traveller's voice and personality.

Great collection of memoir-ish essays. She'd be wise to write a screenplay or a stage play, with talent like this. Well done, Ms. Winger.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alternately Revealing and Cryptic Look a Rule-Breaking Actress' Journey of Self-Discovery, July 30, 2008

By 

Ed Uyeshima (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Undiscovered (Hardcover)

If you've ever seen Rosanna Arquette's self-indulgent, worshipful 2002 documentary, Searching for Debra Winger, you caught a glimpse of a well-regarded actress whose self-imposed and ultimately short-lived retirement inspired the film's eponymous title. In the film, Winger is trenchantly sardonic about the inherent sexism in Hollywood and proves to be a perceptive non-conformist unwilling to compromise for a youth-oriented industry she doesn't respect. Her new book reflects much of those same qualities, and true to her independent attitude, it is most definitely not a straightforward autobiography. Rather, it's a series of anecdotal essays and poems - sometimes meandering, sometimes emotionally incisive - primarily focused on the past dozen years of her life, a defining period in which she quit the A-List and elected to live her own life on a farm in the Catskills with her family. Winger supplements her personal accounts with drawings of various passageways not by her but by Philippe Petit, an aerialist most famous for walking a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Although she has not met Petit, it's clear she is making an analogy between his particular talent and the balancing act she has been managing between being an actress and a wife and mother.

Winger does share how she has since returned to acting on an occasional basis these days but more on her terms since she is obviously finding fulfillment elsewhere. Not that it's been a carefree pastoral existence in upstate New York since she had to take care for her dying mother. Winger's passion, so evident in her early 1980's roles like An Officer and a Gentleman and Terms of Endearment, is still very much in evidence in this book as she continues her quest to live life to the fullest regardless of the circumstances. At the same time, she can be unnecessarily cryptic about her motivations and thoughts. It's obvious she is avoiding any hint of a "tell-all" with this book, but the drawback is that we never really get her perspective on her infamously tempestuous reputation in the film industry. Perhaps she has evolved enough from her past to not feel the need to readdress it, but I have to admit I frankly haven't and would have loved to hear her side of things. The actress admits that she would prefer working more these days, and so would we. In the meantime, as Winger puts it, she is "always searching for the next door, the next role, the next change". Perhaps she could include the next book, a more revealing autobiography.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Tangential and Disconnected Ramblings...., July 17, 2009

By 

Bettyboy72 "Thom" (Buffalo, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Undiscovered (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a huge fan of Debra's work and philosophies on life. This book is often incoherent. As an avid reader of books on spirituality and new age topics, I found this book almost unreadable. Debra clearly is tapped into a wonderful spiritual core and negotiates with it daily, like many of us. However, she does not have the skill to articulate this to a reader. It was like someone published things she scrawled out on napkins and something got lost in the translation. I am all for experimental reads, but this really pushed the limits. It is full of ego and it is disrespectful to the reader since it is almost impossible to glean anything from these ramblings. I am glad I got this on the bargain book table. I read this book in about an hour. The publisher must be kicking themselves. I hope Debra writes an autobiography with the help of a ghost writer.

I am sure she would attribute negative reviews of the book to people not being tapped into her and she would shrug it off. However, she needs to understand that this book is not palatable or accessible, and offers little to no depth or insight. For someone who purports to detest ego this book is very classist and ego-driven. It is a complete contradiction.

After having just seen her brilliant work in Rachel Getting Married, I know she still has the chops. I guess I will just watch interviews to get insight into the brilliant Debra Winger.

The cover photo is stunning and essentially what drew me to the book.