An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman

I first heard of Lillian Hellman when I watched the movie "Julia," starring Jane Fonda as Ms. Hellman and Vanessa Redgrave as her friend, Julia. From that movie, I learned that Ms. Hellman was a playwright in the 1930's and 1940's, that she was an independent woman, and that she had a long-term relationship with the writer Dashiell Hammett (played by Jason Robards). For many years, that was the extent of my knowledge, until another movie, this time a film version of one of Ms. Hellman's plays. The play was "The Children's Hour" and it showed me that this was a woman who was an excellent writer in her own right, and not just a someone who had attached herself to a famous man. Now, having read this memoir of her life, I'm more intrigued than ever.

Despite being a memoir, this book focuses a good deal on the people that Ms. Hellman knew and less on herself. However, one should not expect any dirt on the famous from this book -- Ms. Hellman was an extremely private individual and not only refrained from sharing what we would view as the "juicy tidbits" of her life, but also refrained from sharing those of her friends. We are instead given an insight into the knowledge she gained from others, and the life experiences that made her who she was (Ms. Hellman passed away in 1984). The reader is left with the impression that Ms. Hellman was very self-aware and had no qualms about sharing that information, good or bad. She presented herself as, "Here is who and what I am, no apologies, no excuses."

Unlike many modern-day memoirs, we are also not subjected to endless psychoanalysis into her psyche -- it's obvious that she spent a great deal of time reflecting on herself and others, and figuring out what made them tick, but that knowledge is presented through their actions, so that the reader is often left to draw her own conclusions as to the reasoning behind the actions. This actually makes for a more meaningful reading experience, and one that I enjoyed immensely.