Ten Things I Wish I'd Known
 Maria Shriver
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2000 Warner Books, Inc NY USA
  ISBN: 0446526126


Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out into the Real World is an expanded version of this author's Commencement Address at the College of the Holy Cross & is a pithy, poignant, down-to-earth & often hilarious little book that will help all sorts of people get a handle on their own efforts & some humor into this roller-coaster we call Life.

Maria Shriver has a fervor, an élan & a refreshing way of laughing at herself. She writes exactly as she speaks, restlessly with lots of exclamations, dramatic pauses & cogent comments about everything.

This is one outspoken woman who was not only born with a silver spoon in her fist, she also had four brothers to keep her in shape, a pair of loving, supportive parents & a tribe of relatives. So what disadvantages could she possibly have had? What obstacles has she ever had to overcome? What trials & tribulations could she have known that would warrant a book?

Actually, until she'd made a name for herself within her chosen profession, she had to live in a family that cast very long shadows out of which she had to not only emerge as her own self, she had to re-make herself to be taken seriously.

When I won a scholarship to St. Martin's School of Arts & Crafts in London, I was astonished at how much my accent offended & brought ridicule down upon me. That was how everyone I knew spoke; I was aware other people also had accents, I didn't know that certain attributes were assigned to accents. Within a month at that trade school I had rubbed off the edges to my speech. So I empathised with Maria Shriver with her taut New England accent, when she first went out into the Real World.

None of what Maria Shriver writes about: be it finding your passion or seeing the consequences of your behavior; from working with people to learning from menial work; from being willing to fail to interring Superwoman; from mixing marriage, motherhood & careers; from being financially independent to learning to laugh - none of it is exotic or unfamiliar, however, it is Maria Shriver's unique & energetic delivery that makes it all special & eminently readable

This is a woman who took herself very seriously, primarily because no one else did. She has learnt to laugh at her pratfalls, to be of service in order to learn & to keep her eyes & mind open.

Maria Shriver's memoirs are like a ride on the bumper cars at a carnival. Masses of bright lights, bangs & laughter. Sometimes I wondered if she ever slept during her 20s; then I remembered my 20s & chuckled.

Maria Shriver is generous with her praise, diplomatic with her criticism & knows how to tell a good story! All through her book I could hear her speaking in her inimitably intense way. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit with her & afterwards I found myself super charged & laughing a lot more! Very well done, Maria!
(09/17/00)

Rebecca