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I became fascinated with Pam Grier after seeing her in the films "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." I loved her as those characters, but I wanted to know about the real person behind those personas. Well, it takes a tough lady to play a tough lady. Like the strong cinema heroines she has vividly brought to life, Pam is an amazing survivor. And, as she tells in this memoir, she has survived a lot. Her father, Clarence Grier, was in the Army so she grew up in various places around the United States. Pam tells many tales of discrimination and segregation during the 1950's. Perhaps the happiest period in Pam's early life was the two years Pam and her family lived in England, where discrimination and segregation were not issues of daily life. Her amazing mother, Gwendolyn, taught her to "forgive" discrimination. Pam writes, "My mother showed me that while prejudice may be alive and kicking in some areas of the world, we are in reality a multracial world that requires great patience and understanding." Her mother, not wanting Pam to be dependent on any man for survival, stressed the importance of a good education.After he retired, Pam's father divorced her mother and abandoned his entire family. Yet, whatever crisis Pam's family faced (and there were several) they always survived somehow. Pam originally intended to go to UCLA and study film. After winning second place in a beauty contest, she was approached by a Hollywood agent. Anxious to escape after surviving two devastating rapes, Pam gambled on Hollywood. While working as a receptionist at AIP Studios, she was approached to star in "The Big Doll House." Pam figured she could apply the $500 a week she would make on this overseas quickie towards UCLA. Instead of being a UCLA student, Pam became the Queen of the emerging "blaxplotation" film genre, starring in such classics as "Black Mama, White Mama", "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." No drug-dealer, pimp, or other scum-bag, low-life Bad Man (or Woman, for that matter) ever stood a chance against the full-force of Pam Grier in her roles as divine, self-empowered heroines. Off-screen, Pam tried to find the right balance between her "fame" and relationships. Pam offers more details about her private life than she does about her film career. She is surprisingly candid and blunt discussing her heartbreaking relationships with Kareem Abdul- Jabbarr, Freddie Prinze, and Richard Pryor. Pam was a positive influence on all these men. But she was also far too level-headed to indulge in the drugs and other destructive vices that ultimately destroyed the talented and tormented Prinze and Pryor. Pam's self-preservation instincts always kicked in at the right time. Those self-preservation instincts kicked into high gear when she was diagnosed with cancer. Never a victim and always a survivor, Pam attacked cancer with a vengence. She came out a winner; just in time to star in Quentin Tarantino's superb "Jackie Brown" (which he wrote especially for her from Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch") and the groundbreaking Showtime series "The L Word." Tarantino stated in an interview that he really wanted Pam to be the first African-American actress to win the Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance as "Jackie Brown." That would have been wonderful, and so well deserved! (Halle Berry, of course, won that honor a few years later for her role in "Monster's Ball"). The reader may also wish that Pam's private life had been as rewarding as her career. Pam has had too many lousy boyfriends-- I wanted to kill the last two boyfriends she mentions in the book! The real Pam Grier lives a quiet life on a small farm in Colorado; surrounded by her beloved horses and dogs. She has few regrets. The real Pam Grier who emerges in this book has lived life to the fullest and learned from it. She writes, "If you're so frightened of the great big world out there that you refuse to explore and learn about it, then you're limiting your experience and living only half a life."
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Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2010
I became fascinated with Pam Grier after seeing her in the films "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." I loved her as those characters, but I wanted to know about the real person behind those personas. Well, it takes a tough lady to play a tough lady. Like the strong cinema heroines she has vividly brought to life, Pam is an amazing survivor. And, as she tells in this memoir, she has survived a lot.
Her father, Clarence Grier, was in the Army so she grew up in various places around the United States. Pam tells many tales of discrimination and segregation during the 1950's. Perhaps the happiest period in Pam's early life was the two years Pam and her family lived in England, where discrimination and segregation were not issues of daily life. Her amazing mother, Gwendolyn, taught her to "forgive" discrimination. Pam writes, "My mother showed me that while prejudice may be alive and kicking in some areas of the world, we are in reality a multracial world that requires great patience and understanding." Her mother, not wanting Pam to be dependent on any man for survival, stressed the importance of a good education.
After he retired, Pam's father divorced her mother and abandoned his entire family. Yet, whatever crisis Pam's family faced (and there were several) they always survived somehow. Pam originally intended to go to UCLA and study film. After winning second place in a beauty contest, she was approached by a Hollywood agent. Anxious to escape after surviving two devastating rapes, Pam gambled on Hollywood. While working as a receptionist at AIP Studios, she was approached to star in "The Big Doll House." Pam figured she could apply the $500 a week she would make on this overseas quickie towards UCLA. Instead of being a UCLA student, Pam became the Queen of the emerging "blaxplotation" film genre, starring in such classics as "Black Mama, White Mama", "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." No drug-dealer, pimp, or other scum-bag, low-life Bad Man (or Woman, for that matter) ever stood a chance against the full-force of Pam Grier in her roles as divine, self-empowered heroines.
Off-screen, Pam tried to find the right balance between her "fame" and relationships. Pam offers more details about her private life than she does about her film career. She is surprisingly candid and blunt discussing her heartbreaking relationships with Kareem Abdul- Jabbarr, Freddie Prinze, and Richard Pryor. Pam was a positive influence on all these men. But she was also far too level-headed to indulge in the drugs and other destructive vices that ultimately destroyed the talented and tormented Prinze and Pryor. Pam's self-preservation instincts always kicked in at the right time. Those self-preservation instincts kicked into high gear when she was diagnosed with cancer. Never a victim and always a survivor, Pam attacked cancer with a vengence. She came out a winner; just in time to star in Quentin Tarantino's superb "Jackie Brown" (which he wrote especially for her from Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch") and the groundbreaking Showtime series "The L Word." Tarantino stated in an interview that he really wanted Pam to be the first African-American actress to win the Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance as "Jackie Brown." That would have been wonderful, and so well deserved! (Halle Berry, of course, won that honor a few years later for her role in "Monster's Ball"). The reader may also wish that Pam's private life had been as rewarding as her career. Pam has had too many lousy boyfriends-- I wanted to kill the last two boyfriends she mentions in the book!
The real Pam Grier lives a quiet life on a small farm in Colorado; surrounded by her beloved horses and dogs. She has few regrets. The real Pam Grier who emerges in this book has lived life to the fullest and learned from it. She writes, "If you're so frightened of the great big world out there that you refuse to explore and learn about it, then you're limiting your experience and living only half a life."
Her father, Clarence Grier, was in the Army so she grew up in various places around the United States. Pam tells many tales of discrimination and segregation during the 1950's. Perhaps the happiest period in Pam's early life was the two years Pam and her family lived in England, where discrimination and segregation were not issues of daily life. Her amazing mother, Gwendolyn, taught her to "forgive" discrimination. Pam writes, "My mother showed me that while prejudice may be alive and kicking in some areas of the world, we are in reality a multracial world that requires great patience and understanding." Her mother, not wanting Pam to be dependent on any man for survival, stressed the importance of a good education.
After he retired, Pam's father divorced her mother and abandoned his entire family. Yet, whatever crisis Pam's family faced (and there were several) they always survived somehow. Pam originally intended to go to UCLA and study film. After winning second place in a beauty contest, she was approached by a Hollywood agent. Anxious to escape after surviving two devastating rapes, Pam gambled on Hollywood. While working as a receptionist at AIP Studios, she was approached to star in "The Big Doll House." Pam figured she could apply the $500 a week she would make on this overseas quickie towards UCLA. Instead of being a UCLA student, Pam became the Queen of the emerging "blaxplotation" film genre, starring in such classics as "Black Mama, White Mama", "Coffy" and "Foxy Brown." No drug-dealer, pimp, or other scum-bag, low-life Bad Man (or Woman, for that matter) ever stood a chance against the full-force of Pam Grier in her roles as divine, self-empowered heroines.
Off-screen, Pam tried to find the right balance between her "fame" and relationships. Pam offers more details about her private life than she does about her film career. She is surprisingly candid and blunt discussing her heartbreaking relationships with Kareem Abdul- Jabbarr, Freddie Prinze, and Richard Pryor. Pam was a positive influence on all these men. But she was also far too level-headed to indulge in the drugs and other destructive vices that ultimately destroyed the talented and tormented Prinze and Pryor. Pam's self-preservation instincts always kicked in at the right time. Those self-preservation instincts kicked into high gear when she was diagnosed with cancer. Never a victim and always a survivor, Pam attacked cancer with a vengence. She came out a winner; just in time to star in Quentin Tarantino's superb "Jackie Brown" (which he wrote especially for her from Elmore Leonard's "Rum Punch") and the groundbreaking Showtime series "The L Word." Tarantino stated in an interview that he really wanted Pam to be the first African-American actress to win the Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance as "Jackie Brown." That would have been wonderful, and so well deserved! (Halle Berry, of course, won that honor a few years later for her role in "Monster's Ball"). The reader may also wish that Pam's private life had been as rewarding as her career. Pam has had too many lousy boyfriends-- I wanted to kill the last two boyfriends she mentions in the book!
The real Pam Grier lives a quiet life on a small farm in Colorado; surrounded by her beloved horses and dogs. She has few regrets. The real Pam Grier who emerges in this book has lived life to the fullest and learned from it. She writes, "If you're so frightened of the great big world out there that you refuse to explore and learn about it, then you're limiting your experience and living only half a life."
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Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2010
Top reviews from other countries
modernafrican
Interesting read form an icon of Black cinema.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2013Missy elliott
One of the most gripping memoirs I've read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2020
