Minnie Driver is an accomplished actress who I knew from Grosse Point Blank and Good Will Hunting but that's about it. She's been in other stuff I'd seen but honestly, I didn't know much about her except that she was English and had amazing hair. She intrigued me as she has been a Hollywood fixture for decades but I didn't know much about her at all, so when Audible had a 2 for 1 sale and her autobiography was a part of the promotion, I scooped it up. Driver's writing is witty, honest, and surprisingly vulnerable as she shares anecdotes from her life and career. It's not a chronological recounting of her life, but rather a collection of essays that explore themes of family, ambition, love, and loss. She doesn't shy away from the messy parts of life, and her reflections on failures and unexpected turns are what make the book so relatable. Having listened to it, I can say that I am a convert and a bit of a fan as she seems pretty grounded and self-aware of the fickle nature of fame.

She starts with the breakup of her parents marriage and the effect it had on her growing up, being a bit of a rascal who was defiant of her father. We then get hints of her passion for the theatrics as she is on Nationwide, a local news show, where she performed to stop the expansion of a motorway past her school's property.
We whizz forward to her graduating years as she describes trying to find acting work but ending up being a miserable lounge singer and weekend raver, where she meets someone who works with a casting agent.
She briefly describes her success in Circle of Friends and the lull that followed before serendipity put her in front of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for Good Will Hunting. Damon dumped her before she was nominated for an Oscar so there were awkward award season meetups. Also, Harvey Weinstein said he didn't want to cast her as she was unfuckable- Driver’s acerbic reply of a man wearing a shirt with tuna mayo, egg and other stains being an arbiter of beauty is on point.

She discusses the travails of motherhood and the incursion into Malibu to fight the fires that ravaged her neighbourhood as well as bring supplies to her firefighting peers and neighbours. Driver ends on her mother's fight against cancer during Covid, being incredibly honest about her loss but also hopeful and earnest with her grief.

Throughout the audiobook, I felt that Driver's voice was authentic and she was engaging in her performance, making you feel like you were having a conversation with a close friend. She's funny and self-deprecating, but also deeply thoughtful and introspective. Her stories are often humorous, but they also carry a poignant undercurrent that resonates long after you've finished reading.

The book is lyrical and her prose beautiful, such as the way she describes travelling in transit in such magical terms, 'it is a feeling if freedom... it is an existential corridor where I am not tethered to who I was on departure or who I will be when I land. The pressure of expectation is released... all the myriad interactions of life are put on hold. It is the relaxation of an exhale of a pause.'

Strangely, I can relate as I love transiting too. It's an amazing liminal space that requires a change of norms, the rules seem to change amongst the giant Toblerones as people are journeying to different locations.

Overall, Managing Expectations is a delightful and insightful memoir that offers a refreshing take on the typical celebrity autobiography.

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