Call Me Crazy: A Memoir

FROM OUR EDITORS

In this vibrant tell-all, risk-taking actress Heche describes her abusive childhood, her natural father's double life, her four-year stint on Another World, her highly public involvement with Ellen DeGeneres, and her subsequent engagement to a man. Anyone who thinks that a 32-year-old couldn't have experienced enough to write a decent autobiography hasn't met Heche.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"My life is a life movies are made of," wrote Anne Heche in the proposal for her memoir. Yet what is truly surprising about Heche is that the most publicized event of her past -- her romance with Ellen DeGeneres -- is only one development in a fascinating and difficult life that has included more than its share of heartache and tragedy.

Anne, the youngest of four children, moved nine times before the age of twelve. That year, Anne discovered that during her father's frequent absences he'd been leading a double life. He died of AIDS when Anne was thirteen, leaving the family in poverty.

On graduating high school, Anne began a four-year stint on Another World. It was during that period that she began to face the horror of a childhood filled with unspeakable abuse. In the ensuing twelve years she struggled with her past, all the while experiencing enormous success as an actress, screenwriter, and director. Filled with unsparing candor and honesty, Call Me Crazy captures with poignancy and a surprising amount of humor Anne's struggle to face her demons, both real and imagined, including a period when she was, quite literally, insane.

Heche's memoir reveals the woman behind the headlines, one who has conquered overwhelming odds. Far from a celebrity memoir, this is an empowering and thought-provoking book guaranteed to surprise and inspire.

SYNOPSIS

Here is the woman behind the headlines. The most publicized event of her past -- her romance with Ellen DeGeneres -- is only one development in a fascinating and difficult life of heartache and tragedy. Far from a celebrity memoir, this beautifully written and evocative story of pain and redemption is guaranteed to surprise and inspire.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Actor Heche became tabloid fodder for her lesbian relationship with comedian Ellen DeGeneres and a bizarre incident in which Heche showed up at a stranger's door raving about a spaceship that was coming to take her to heaven. In this harrowing autobiography, Heche unflinchingly lays bare the abuse and psychological trauma that led her to that moment. She grew up in a fundamentalist Christian family rife with dysfunction (e.g., a father who, she says, sexually molested her). Her resulting case of herpes went untreated because her mother didn't believe in doctors. Heche's father also disappeared for weeks at a time (she later learned he was stealing away to have homosexual affairs) and rarely seemed to be employed. The children were forbidden to ask any questions, under threat of being beaten with a wooden spoon. Now, with 13 years of therapy behind her, Heche is able to talk insightfully about her emotional landscape. At one point, she believed herself to be a heavenly messenger from a "fourth dimension" of pure love; looking back, she realizes that this insanity was her subconscious way of surrounding herself with the love she craved, after being coldly rejected by her family. Heche says that she was attracted to DeGeneres's strong self-image, so different from her own shattered psyche. She doesn't describe herself as a lesbian, saying, "I fell in love with a person, not a gender," and was surprised and appalled that the relationship evoked such a strong negative reaction in the media. Heche is a superb narrator. Raw with emotion, her voice is by turns sorrowful, enraged and hopeful, drawing the listener into her story. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover. (Sept.) Copyright2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

This controversial autobiography describes Heche's lifelong struggle to overcome horrific childhood abuse. Growing up in a terribly repressive, dysfunctional household, Heche was instructed to be seen and not heard. However, with years of therapy, she was able to recall sexual abuse at the hands of her closeted gay father, a former church choir director who lived a double life and died of AIDS in 1984. The author believes her psychological problems, including her split personality, resulted from the trauma of this maltreatment. Although members of her family have publicly expressed skepticism at her claims, hearing this popular actress relate her life story is quite moving and may well be a comfort to other victims of abuse. For all popular collections. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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