Book Review: Audition by Barbara Walters

Audition: A Memoir by Barbara Walters

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have read quite a lot in this genre... and this is a good one.  Better than Katharine Graham's, in fact, and that one won prizes.

Word was out before I picked this one up that Barbara Walters was talking for the first time about having a sister with a developmental disability.  That was of real interest to me because I can relate.  My middle brother - born when I was six - has Downs syndrome.  This happens to be one of those life facts that plays a major role in one's own development and outlook.  As an active member of a sibling group here in Ohio, I've met many brothers and sisters from all walks of life, people whose stories are all very different. And also very familiar.

People with disabilities have all kinds of famous siblings... Jamie Foxx and Eva Longoria come to mind... but only the Kennedys are more prominent than Barbara Walters.  That's why it was such a relief that Walters didn't gloss over that part of her life in this wonderful memoir.  Indeed, the first word of the prologue is "sister."  She goes on to say that her elder sister, Jackie, was the most influential person in her life.  Amen and hallelujah! 

Walters was born into a glamorous family in New York City, blessed with intellect and energy enough to dream big dreams and also with chutzpah and determination enough to follow them through.  She broke glass ceiling after glass ceiling, proving critics wrong all along the way.  She has stared down dictators and corporate bosses, withstood withering public criticism, outlasted chauvinistic colleagues, and outwitted the competition.  She's touched the lives of presidents and movie stars and infamous criminals.  She's fallen in love, raised a child, and survived divorce.  All while providing for a sister who was utterly dependent (and apparently pretty demanding!)

Every woman in 21st century America owes Barbara Walters a debt of gratitude - for her determination, her courage, and her clear-minded leadership.  Any one of us who has achieved any part of our dreams is on a highway paved in part by Walters. For decades she was and still is a role model and inspiration.  But who inspired her?  "Much of the need I had to prove myself, to achieve, to provide," Walters writes, "can be traced to my feelings about Jackie."

We are fortunate that after the life she's led Walters had the stamina in her 70s to put together this memoir. It is charming and compelling, a real page turner.  Even the collection of pictures reveals much about her that we didn't know before. This is not a mere recitation of activities: "I did this and then I did this and then I did that."  Walters makes sense of the various choices she's made, the jobs she's done, the people she's loved.  She weaves her life stories together into a cohesive tapestry of purpose, accident, decision, and luck and she tells it with kindness, wisdom, humor, and compassion.  She credits her sister with that stuff, too. 

Amen and hallelujah.



View all my reviews