Then Again

By: Diane Keaton

Narrated by: Diane Keaton

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Janet Maslin, The New York Times • People • Vogue

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR —Financial Times • Chicago Sun-Times The Independent • Bookreporter The Sunday Business Post

Mom loved adages, quotes, slogans. There were always little reminders pasted on the kitchen wall. For example, the word THINK. I found THINK thumbtacked on a bulletin board in her darkroom. I saw it Scotch-taped on a pencil box she’d collaged. I even found a pamphlet titled THINK on her bedside table. Mom liked to THINK.

So begins Diane Keaton’s unforgettable memoir about her mother and herself. In it you will meet the woman known to tens of millions as Annie Hall, but you will also meet, and fall in love with, her mother, the loving, complicated, always-thinking Dorothy Hall. To write about herself, Diane realized she had to write about her mother, too, and how their bond came to define both their lives. In a remarkable act of creation, Diane not only reveals herself to us, she also lets us meet in intimate detail her mother. Over the course of her life, Dorothy kept eighty-five journals—literally thousands of pages—in which she wrote about her marriage, her children, and, most probingly, herself. Dorothy also recorded memorable stories about Diane’s grandparents. Diane has sorted through these pages to paint an unflinching portrait of her mother—a woman restless with intellectual and creative energy, struggling to find an outlet for her talents—as well as her entire family, recounting a story that spans four generations and nearly a hundred years.

More than the autobiography of a legendary actress, Then Again is a book about a very American family with very American dreams. Diane will remind you of yourself, and her bonds with her family will remind you of your own relationships with those you love the most.

©2011 Diane Keaton (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“For anyone looking to join one woman’s—albeit a famous woman’s—touching and funny journey into the vortex that is the parent-child relationship, Then Again features an especially honest tour guide.” (USA Today)

“A poem about women living in one another’s not uncomplicated memories. . . . Part of what makes Diane Keaton’s memoir, Then Again, truly amazing is that she does away with the star’s ‘me’ and replaces it with a daughter’s ‘I.’ ” (Hilton Als, The New Yorker)

“Although peek-behind-the-curtain moments are delicious—Woody Allen! Warren Beatty! Jack Nicholson! . . . this is a [memoir] about a mother and a daughter, with insights and confessions and lessons to which all readers can relate.” (The Wall Street Journal)

So disappointing!

I was hoping for a fun listening experience but Diane's story didn't flow well. It stuttered, it ran cold and then the author/narrator lost herself in her emotions at the end. I learned from this book that Diane Keaton is what she appears to be on the screen; just a bit of an airhead. Perhaps someone else should have narrated the book.

Then again and again and again and again......

Would you try another book from Diane Keaton and/or Diane Keaton?

Possibly...... because I enjoy her movies and performances.

What could Diane Keaton have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Less information about all the details regarding her mother and father, and more about herself.....especially about her movie career and details about other movie stars with whom she had contact. Information about movies she was in and interesting incidents that occurred while making them.

What character would you cut from Then Again?

Diane Keaton's mother!

Hard to get through

Would you try another book from Diane Keaton and/or Diane Keaton?

Very slow-was disappointed as Ms Keaton makes for a poor narrator.Was really expecting more.

Would you ever listen to anything by Diane Keaton again?

No

How could the performance have been better?

Unsure

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Then Again?

None

Any additional comments?

No

Enjoy her as an actress...not as a writer.

I just couldn't get through this book. Ms. Keaton switches between her own words and those of her mother, which may be easier to follow on the written page than it was (for me) in an audio book. I kept having to mentally rewind when I belatedly realized that a different "narrator" had begun talking. Beyond that, ultimately I found the story boring. As another reviewer wrote, this is the memoir that everyone should write--just not necessarily publish!

A book to be enjoyed by family

I love Diane Keaton and have seen every movie she has ever been in. She plays cute, gutsy, quirky women. I love her! But this is a tale of life that would be interesting only to immediately family members in my opinion. I listen to books while doing pottery and this one had my face falling into the pots I was pulling. I absolutely couldn't stay awake. This is the kind of personal history that everyone should write . . . just not necessarily publish.

So boring

Would you try another book from Diane Keaton and/or Diane Keaton?

never

Has Then Again turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

Any additional comments?

On a long drive across the country we decided to not listen to anything rather than one more minute of this.

Not about Diane

The majority of the book seems to be Diane reading her mom‘s journal and letters that her mom wrote to her. What little Diane herself adds is not anything you couldn’t have found on Wikipedia. Very disappointing.

What a disappointment.

What would have made Then Again better?

A cohesive, chronological story that actually told her full story including details about her professional life and colleagues and her romances. This was not an autobiography, but rather was more a story about her mom and dad and her kids. Much of the book is Diane simply reading letters or lists or recounting things her children said. I couldn't wait for it to end. Shame on the publisher for going to press with a book in this condition. This was a far cry from Rob Lowe's exceptionally well written and interesting book. Don't waste your money.

Would you ever listen to anything by Diane Keaton again?

No

What aspect of Diane Keaton’s performance would you have changed?

Sounded like she was acting, not telling her story from the heart.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Then Again?

Too many to mention, but I would have put the book in chronological order so that it didn't skip around, would have cut the reading of lists and letters as well as the meaningless quotations of her children (I.e. mom, I want an iPhone) - who cares.

all over the place....

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

Love Keaton but this book is just all over the place, story wise... using her mother's writings to hide behind her own life story is not appealing to me... I want more Diane and see how she ticks and not this jerky... 'oh, I'm getting too personal so I'll talk about Mom and HER problems" kind of memoir

What could Diane Keaton have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Talk about herself and not he Mother's problems... She did not even know of her mother's problems until after her death...yet we hear the story as if she lived her live knowing all along...

What didn’t you like about Diane Keaton’s performance?

love to hear her speak..

What character would you cut from Then Again?

Her parents... more about her

Any additional comments?

guess this is all we are going to get when it comes to learning about the career and life of Diane. About 70 pages about her...the rest...her mother and her problems....she knew anything about at the time.

I so wanted to love this book!

I truly wanted to love this book, but it couldn't really hold my attention, which wasn't helped by the fact that I couldn't easily differentiate between her talking or her reading excerpts from her mothers letters or journals. So often when I tried to pick up where I left off I found it hard to tell if what I was listening to was Diane or her mother. She should have done a different voice or have someone else read her mother's parts.