Happy Accidents: A Memoir
Best known for playing the track suit-wearing diva of mean, Sue Sylvester, on "Glee", Jane Lynch is having quite a year. She's picked up a Golden Globe and is not only nominated for an Emmy but is also hosting the show. Now she's out with a memoir, Happy Accidents that, while not quite as funny as her turns on screen, is darn entertaining and highly readable.
Proceeding in a perfectly chronological order can be the kiss of death for a bio; such a predictable structure usually means boredom. In Lynch's case, it means she gets to the good parts right away. Her memories of her childhood and family, such as her parents' ritual nightly cocktails or her imagined relationship with her late grandfather, are vividly written and focused through a loving but wry perspective. Lynch is aided greatly by scrapbooks that she's held on to for decades, allowing her to include gems like her dyke-crush on Ron Howard, whom she pronounced "foxy" (fellow "Happy Days" star Anson Williams rated only "pretty good foxy"), pictures included.
As with her characters, Lynch isn't afraid to look foolish or be portrayed in a less than flattering light. She allows herself the same freedom in "Happy Accidents". There's a "warts and all" quality to her writing. Lynch shares not just her closeted teenage awkwardness and the insecurity that is de rigueur for actors and especially comedians, but also alcoholism and a mean streak where she could give some nasty critiques to fellow drama school students or turn an entire cast of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" against her.
Lucky for Lynch, as she acknowledges, although she was a working actress for much of her life (sure, some of it was on a home shopping channel, excellent training for improv comedy), she didn't hit fame until into her late thirties. Although she claims, and titles her memoir, that a series of happy accidents lead to her success, Lynch's memoir shows how she slowly built her career from the time as a pre-teen by writing casting agents. She took the work that came her way, from commercials to television guest spots to film, including making her own opportunities, as with a one-woman show or the unexpected success of a little stage show known as "The Real, Live Brady Bunch". OK, it probably was a happy accident that she bumped into Christopher Guest at a coffee shop, he remembered her from a cereal commercial and cast her as egotistical but insecure champion dog trainer in "Best in Show". But everything else in "Happy Accidents" seems like luck Lynch made herself.
As Lynch writes about her more successful, happier recent history, though, her memoir becomes less interesting. While it's good for her and her family that she's obviously now a nice, sweet person, a little of that former mean streak could go quite a ways to livening up the last few chapters. Seriously, after many guest spots on "Two and Half Men", the best she can come up with for Charlie Sheen is that he was "a kindhearted gentleman who was loved by the cast and crew"?
Still, her self-deprecating reactions to her success on "Glee" can be a hoot (on seeing a wax version of herself at Madame Tussaud's, Lynch remarks, "This is how I will look in a coffin when I'm dead."), and the frequently used photos and clips from scrapbooks old and new are good but even better with Lynch's captions. But it's including all the not-so-funny things that made Lynch who she is, from gawky, closeted teen to out-and-proud comedic national treasure, that makes "Happy Accidents" more than just a series of one-liners.
Publisher: Hyperion. Publication Date: September 13, 2011. Pages: 304. Price: $25.99. Format: Hardcover Original. ISBN 978-1401341763