My Life So Far

By: Jane Fonda

Narrated by: Jane Fonda

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

She is one of the most recognizable women of our time. America knows Jane Fonda as an actress and an activist, a feminist and a wife, a workout guru and a role model. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, Fonda reveals that she is so much more. From her youth among Hollywood's elite and her early film career to the challenges and triumphs of her life today, Jane Fonda reveals intimate details and universal truths that she hopes "can provide a lens through which others can see their lives and how they can live them a little differently."

Fonda divides her "life so far" into three "acts", writing about her childhood, first films, and marriage to Roger Vadim in Act One. At once a picture emerges: a child born to the acting legend Henry Fonda and the glamorous society princess Frances Seymour. But these early years are also marked by profound sadness: her mother's mental illness and suicide when Jane is 12 years old, her father's emotional distance, and her personal struggle to find her way in the world as a young woman.

By her second act, Fonda lays the foundation for her activism, even as her career takes flight. She highlights her struggle to live consciously and authentically while remaining in the public eye as she recounts her marriages to Tom Hayden and Ted Turner, and examines her controversial and defining involvement with the Vietnam War. As her film career grows, Fonda learns to incorporate her roles into a larger vision of what matters most in her life, and in the process she wins two Academy Awards, for Klute and for Coming Home.

In Fonda's third act, she is prepared to do the work of a lifetime, to begin living consciously in a way that might inspire others who can learn from her experiences.

Surprising, candid, and wonderfully written, Jane Fonda's My Life So Far is filled with universal insights into the personal struggles of women living full and engaged lives.

Want to hear about Jane Fonda's first date with Ted Turner? She talks about that night and more in this interview with Audible's founder and CEO, Don Katz.

©2005 Jane Fonda (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Belongs alongside the memoirs of Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Marilyn French and Katharine Graham... To hold this book in your hands is to be astonished by how much living can be packed into sixty-plus years.” (Los Angeles Times)

“[A] sisterly, enveloping memoir... an intimate, haunting book that might as well be catnip from its ever controversial author.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

“Terrific... rich... unexpectedly quite moving.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

JANE FONDA, THE MOST AWESOME, SWEETEST, BRIGHTEST

What did you love best about My Life So Far?

I LOVED YOUR VOICE, READING "MY LIFE SO FOR "TO ME.
I LOVED HER CANDID, OPEN & HOW SHE FELT AT THE TIME AND AND, NOW. AS A MAN AND AT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE SPECTRUM, SHE MADE A CONNECTION TO MY VERY SOUL. ALSO I LOVE HER VOCABULARY, (I'M SINGLE, AND SHE SET THE STANDARD FOR MY NEXT WIFE)
I LOVE YOU JANE FONDA, YOURS TRULY,
DOUGLAS.

What was one of the most memorable moments of My Life So Far?

JANE FONDA'S EARLY BEGINNINGS, AND HER EPIC JOURNEY
TO HER "LIFE SO FAR "

Which scene was your favorite?

I DON'T HAVE A FAVORITE, BECAUSE I ENJOYED EVERY BIT OF "MY LIFE SO FAR "

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

ONE PART IN THE MOVED ME, IS WHEN JANE TALKED ABOUT HER PARENT'S.

Any additional comments?

I'VE HAD VERY LITTLE EXPOSURE TO ALL OF JANE FONDA'S GOOD WORK OVER THE YEARS, BUT NOW I'M HER BIG'EST FAN, AND HER TIMELESS CLASSIC "ON GOLDEN POND "
GOD BLESS YOU JANE,
YOURS TRULY,
DOUGLAS.

She's A Legend

and a darned good teller of her story. What a wonderful account for young women of our world who suffer from body image issues to learn from. She is brave and this was very, very interesting!

A must read for women 50+

though I didn't care for Jane's actions during Viet Nam, this is a great book for women 50+ to help them figure out how to come to terms with their own "Act III." I found it a great listen and very inspiring.

My Life so Far

Could not put this book down. Growing up following the sagas of Jane Fonda made this book all the more fascinating. I appreciated the honest approach she took and have the most respect for her courage and generosity. Historical, biographical and a look behind the scenes; from beginning to end it was an excellent "read" and all the better that she narrated it.

I Can't Stop Thinking About This Book

There was so much in this book that I didn't know....she's a very complex woman. She makes the book come alive by reading it herself.

As a women there was so much in this book that made me stop and examine my own life. I always liked Jane Fonda, but now I admire her!

What a life shes' had!!!

An Extra-ordinary person who has put herself in extra ordinary situations and has managed to bring many of them to a satisfactory completion. It is great to hear her voice in this biography. It really does seem like a book that she has writen not just for us but herself in that she seems to be going through a review of her life. She is amazing at putting on a certain character for a film she is in. At the same time she is still discoving, 'who she is', through the words she is putting down in this book.

I think by writing the sum of her yestdays she is giving herself the extra clarity that will help guild her future.

I would love my daughter to listen to this book but I am not sure what a good age is to introduce it to her, she is 12 right now. I am sure when she eventually listens it may help her on the big struggle through adulesents.

I would also like to know after going through what seems like quite a variety of men. whether she could ever marry again!! It Almost seems as if men provide too much noise in her life and yet she seems to have discovered alot having been with men that fit her interests at certain times.

Many thanks and a big hug to Jane Fonda

A Remarkable Woman

Jane Fonda is a woman who has something to say...and it is remarkable. Apart from her personal story which is fascinating, Jane Fonda has written one of the most sensitive, honest, and insightful autobiographies, I've ever read.

Too much defensive gab on Viet Nam stance

I found her book honest about her personal life but she spent too much time defending herself on her outrageous interactions during the Viet Nam War. I don't think most people really knew how deep she was into this type of behavior and it certainly did not give me a very good opinion of her.