Happy Accidents

By: Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett - foreword

Narrated by: Jane Lynch, Carol Burnett (foreword)

Length: 7 hrs

Publisher's summary

In the summer of 1974, a 14-year-old girl in Dolton, Illinois, had a dream. A dream to become an actress, like her idols Ron Howard and Vicki Lawrence. But it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago to Hollywood, and it didn’t help that she’d recently dropped out of the school play, The Ugly Duckling, or that the Hollywood casting directors she wrote to replied that "professional training was a requirement".

But the funny thing is, it all came true. Through a series of happy accidents, Jane Lynch created an improbable—and hilarious—path to success. In those early years, despite her dreams, she was also consumed with anxiety, feeling out of place in both her body and her family. To deal with her worries about her sexuality, she escaped in positive ways—such as joining a high-school chorus not unlike the one in Glee—but also found destructive outlets. She started drinking almost every night during her freshman year of high school and developed a mean and judgmental streak that turned her into a real-life Sue Sylvester.

Then, at 31, she started to get her life together. She was finally able to embrace her sexuality, come out to her parents, and quit drinking for good. Soon after, a Frosted Flakes commercial and a chance meeting in a coffee shop led to a role in the Christopher Guest movie Best in Show, which helped her to get cast in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Similar coincidences and chance meetings led to roles in movies starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and even Meryl Streep in 2009's Julie & Julia.

Then, of course, came the two lucky accidents that truly changed her life. Getting lost in a hotel led to an introduction to her future wife, Lara. And then a series she’d signed up for abruptly got canceled, making it possible for her to take the role of Sue Sylvester in Glee, which made her a megastar. Today, Jane Lynch has finally found the contentment she thought she’d never have.

Part comic memoir and part inspirational narrative, this is a book equally for the rabid Glee fan and for anyone who needs a new perspective on life, love, and success.

Read by the author, with a foreword written and read by Carol Burnett.

©2011 Canyon Lady Productions (P)2011 Hyperion (packaging elements only)

Critic reviews

"A triumphant memoir recounting the inner struggles of one of the most versatile actresses working today…Achingly sad and sweetly comic at the same time." ( Kirkus)

"[A] frank, engaging, and at times uproariously funny autobiography of a roller-coaster life." ( Vogue)

what a waste of time

This book is my least favourite of all those that I've listened to, simply because there is nothing to it. Only random paragraphs that bring no relevant nor interesting information. After each segment, I was trying to understand, in vain, why did the author bring that up. And the answer was always the same: for no reason what so ever

A name dropping blow by blow of average

What would have made Happy Accidents better?

Less detail of every person's name, every show, every flight etc. After a while just felt like a long thank you to every person she had ever talked to. And every instance was an "it was amazing." “I was so happy”.

What does Jane Lynch and Carol Burnett (foreword) bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It was great to hear the actual author read the book.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Many of the personal stories were insightful and interesting to hear about.

Any additional comments?

Unlike Bossy Pants by Tina Fey where I laughed through most of the book, Jane Lynch’s story was lacking humor. The last few chapters are slogging through every show she was ever on and every person she ever talked to … it was drudgery.

I expected more!

What disappointed you about Happy Accidents?

I expected some funny antedotes or sarcastic wit. I got half way through the book and could not continue.

Not what I was expecting

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I think anyone wanting a more biography and less of a comedic book.

Any additional comments?

The narration was good, and I like her, I just didn't like the book.

I really wanted to love this

Any additional comments?

I so wanted to love this book, since I've loved Jane Lynch in virtually everything I've ever seen her in -- from The Forty-Year-Old Virgin to O Sister, My Sister. But her life story, as it turns out, is much too thin to support an entire book -- at least in this well-scrubbed, mild-mannered telling. Coming-out stories just aren't enough to warrant autobiography, at least not anymore -- and particularly not when coming out seems as painless and matter-of-fact as it seems to have been for Lynch. Moreover, everyone she's ever met is just super -- incredibly nice, warm, unpretentious, etc. Everything that's ever happened to her has at least one (if not two, or three) silver linings. And life is pretty much uneventful and awesome, such that whole hours of this audiobook can be spent (and are) on the life-changing dilemma of what color to paint the master bedroom in her fabulous new house.

Oy.

Insight Free--Guaranteed

I am a big fan of Jane Lynch's performances (including her reading of this book), but the book's content was disappointing. She lacks insight; her few attempts are always linked to lame references to self-help books. Her supposedly comic anecdotes do not hold a candle to her wicked performances.