I’ve always felt very attached to little Mara Wilson — the version from Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda. Mrs. Doubtfire is by far one of my favorite movies (Robin Williams’s public persona has always reminded me of my dad, and sadly my parents’ marriage shares a lot with the one portrayed in the movie). And Mara’s little lisping girl was one of the best parts of the movie. She’s got some great lines. And then there’s Matilda. God I love Matilda — the book, the movie, the character — and Mara brought her to life perfectly. And then she sort of slipped out of the spotlight. I’ve seen her online a few times since then — her Twitter is very funny, and she wrote a fantastic article on Cracked.com about OCD — but this book fills in some of the blanks about her time in and out of Hollywood.
Mara managed to escape that child star curse of terrible decision making, and has grown into an intelligent, well-spoken young lady (one riddled with anxiety, but she’s working on it!). She tells us about her upbringing, how her parents were determined not to raise a spoiled Hollywood brat, how roles changed for her as she grew older and less adorable, and how she made the decision to pursue a different life for herself. She also discusses her anxiety issues and how they tie into her OCD, and that chapter (which bears a lot of similarities to the 2013 article for Cracked.com) rang really true for me. I suffer from both of those conditions, and her “type” of OCD (which involves a lot of magical thinking and worrying) shares a lot with my own. It always amazes me to read about other people’s experiences with this disorder because I’ll hear or read about things that I do, and had no idea that it was wrapped up in OCD!
The book isn’t perfect. I feel like some of the chapters started or ended kind of abruptly, and I really wish she’d shared a little more about her time on the set of various shows/films, and her time with Robin Williams. Then again, the stories she did share about Williams had me in tears so maybe it’s better that she limited them (I can certainly understand why). But overall it’s a smart, honest look into Mara’s life over the last 20 years or so.