I don’t think there’s an American woman who is satisfied with her physical appearance. Valerie Bertinelli’s memoir, Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today, is a testament to that. She stresses over the ten pounds she’s lost and gained for her entire life. It took her until she was sixty-one to wonder why those same ten pounds bothered her so much. What was the real problem in her life? And, my personal opinion? She might not have reached that awareness if she hadn’t watched her ex-husband and love of her life, Eddie Van Halen, struggle and finally succumb to cancer. Mortality makes some of us wonder what is wrong with us that we can’t accept life.
Valerie Bertinelli worked since she was twelve. From the time she was fifteen, she grew up on television, spending nine years on “One Day at a Time”. She married musician Eddie Van Halen just before her twenty-first birthday. She admits she always pretended to be the bubbly, upbeat, all-American girl everybody wanted to believe she was. In private, “I have rarely thought of myself as anything but a failure.” She failed to be as skinny as she wanted to be so much so that in her late forties she became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig. She never tried to get healthy or to deal with the reasons she gained weight over the years. Instead, she’d diet, lose weight, and, with Jenny Craig, insisted on losing enough weight to get into a bikini to pose in “People”. She admits she thinks of herself in a brooding, judgmental way.
In some ways, this is a sad book, but true for so many of us. She asks, “Why couldn’t I see all the good things about myself?” That’s the purpose of the book. Bertinelli evaluates her life, hoping to find joy. She found love and joy in her final relationship with Eddie Van Halen. She finds pure love with her son, Wolfie. She’s working on finding gratitude and love for herself and her own life.
Bertinelli says she wanted this to be a book people could pick up and put down. It is because it can be repetitive at times, and she almost uses a stream-of-consciousness style of writing, putting down what she’s thinking of at the time.
While I was interested in Bertinelli’s career and life, her obsession with her weight still permeates the book, although she’s trying to give up that obsession. It’s almost ironic that someone so obsessed with weight is involved with two cooking shows, and includes recipes in her memoir.
The book is a little too self-help for me. But, I hope Bertinelli succeeds in finding the joy in her life. She seems to be a caring, nurturing woman, and I hope she finds happiness. It really is Enough Already.
Enough Already: Learning to Love the Way I Am Today by Valerie Bertinelli. Mariner Books, 2022. ISBN 9780358567363 (hardcover), 245p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
Jackie doesn’t buy it. While Valerie may have gone up and down ten pounds for most of her life, if you look at pictures of her at her heaviest (not that you should!), it was a lot more than 10 pounds. At least, that is Jackie’s statement.
Personally, I like her but I have no intrest in her book.
I like her as well, Jeff, but the book wasn’t what I expected. Too much emphasis on that ten pounds. As someone who has been overweight almost my entire life, I wasn’t interested in that same ten pounds. I was interested in more of her actual life and TV experiences. Not enough of that.
Agree with Jackie. My late wife was a fan of her and the battle with weight loss was a frequent topic with Sandi. She paid attention to what was going on with celebs like Valerie as they dealt with their own weight issues. I suspect the ten pounds is a symbolic deal as Sandi would also talk about gaining and losing the same ten pounds over and over. Even when she knew it was a lot more than ten pounds.
One of the hard shocks of her cancer treatment was learning a few years ago that her cancer had been undiagnosed for over two decades and had a significant role in why she had such trouble losing weight.
No interest here in reading the book.
You’re guess about the symbolic deal is right on target, Kevin. And, you’re not missing much by not reading the book. I like her, too, but I tired of reading about the weight issue.
Hell, I have my own 10 (20, 30) pounds to fret about. AND lots of really good books to spend my time reading. Sorry, Val – but wishing you luck.
Even with her problems, she’s had a more successful life than many child stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhC_TRGse1w Found this video clip about this book. Is more 10 pounds. I have had a weight struggle since I was twelve. My sister-in-law begged me to go to Weight Watchers, I lost 112 pounds. Bought a bikini. Weird, my body did not match, the top of me at 115 pounds looked like I just came from a concentration camp. The lower half was too ample. Gained it back after about five years. Back to Weight Watchers lost a 100 and looked better. Weight Watchers wanted me to lose two more pounds!!! And they trained me to be a leader and did not select me. I never lost those pounds. Over a longer period of time gained back some but not all. Was sick and had a lot of physical therapy. Now my lower half looks better than my top half. I don’t care abput what other people say, I am overweight but I am more fit and I do even think about it any more. I am much happier than I was at 12!
I read a lot of memoirs and biographies but not celebs. I don’t like repetition and often think that books like that would be better with a co-author, getting rid of the repeats and going more after what is in her heart.