The Way I See It: A Look Back At My Life On Little House by Melissa Anderson

The Way I See It: A Look Back At My Life On Little House by Melissa Anderson was the most disappointing memoir I’ve EVER read.

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to read this book, especially after meeting Ms. Anderson at the Book Expo America in May.  I even had a nice conversation with Melissa and she was kind enough to not only autograph my book but she posed for a picture with me as well.  You seem, I loved Little House on The Prairie, as did most girls back in the 70′s and 80′s, and I had read all of the Little House books as well.  Little House was an American phenomenon, a major part of my childhood, and I needed to hear what Melissa Sue Anderson felt and experienced while working on that show.  As much as that show meant to me, I was desperate to find out what it meant to her.  Of all the girls on the show, I identified with Mary’s character the most, as we had the failing vision thing and manners thing in common.   It breaks my heart to have to admit my disappointment publically, but I feel I should always write my book reviews truthfully.

I suppose this book is so disappointing to me because it was written so detached, so unemotional, so coldly.  Nothing special or deep came from the author, and when a person is writing about one of the most beloved television series of all time, shouldn’t one use emotion when describing those memories?  My prime example of her lack of emotion is this – the words she used to describe Michael Landon’s death.  Melissa Gilbert and Alison Arngrim went on and on in their memoirs about his death and wrote of the shock and pain they experienced due to his passing.  Here is what Melissa wrote: “When Mike died on July 1st, 1991, USA Today called to ask me for a quote.  I told them that he was “America’s Family Man.”  It was the truth.”  Three short, cold and totally unemotional sentences.  Uh, gee Mary, thanks for sharing that.  How very deep of you.  (Actually, what I want to write is WTF?, but I’m trying to keep this positive.)

Every celebrity encounter she ever had is written in the style of ”I met so-and-so.  He was a nice person.  People loved him.”  I noticed all Sammy Davis Jr. got was three sentences, too.  She even dated Frank Sinatra Jr. and barely wrote about his famous father, which nearly killed me.  Even worse, the whole novel is written as either an actual script – Melissa writes many of her big moments using a screenplay-esque style, which was highly annoying, or she wrote as if she was actually Mary, and describes episode after episode, after episode as if she wrote down what she saw while watching the DVD’s of the show.  Example: “I scream “Ma” and Adam yells for someone to carry the wounded Caroline back into the school.  I insist on going with Adam to look for the missing child, saying, “The children are my responsibility, too.”  We make our way as best we can in this terrible wind, dirt flying into our eyes.  Defeated, I yell, “Adam, we’ll never find her.”  Again, what?????  Imagine reading 239 pages of mostly a blow-by-blow of what happened on set, without very much else from the author.  She, she mentions it was hot, it was dusty, and Michael Landon had a temper and didn’t like to wear underpants.  Shocking stuff.

Melissa Anderson did manage to go in-depth a bit about her experience learning how to act blind, and that chapter was certainly the best of the book.  She had plenty of possible great chapters, such as the time she met Stephen Spielberg and auditioned for him, but she mangled it and told it screenplay style and again detached.  She could have done wonders with the drama on set with Melissa and Alison, but the snarkiest she got was saying something like Melissa Gilbert acted as young as possible on set for as long as possible.  Sigh.  Obviously, a celebrity memoir is supposed to give us dirt and gossip, and we all know these girls did not get along, so we want to hear about it.  Anyone who writes a celebrity memoir without sharing something is going to disappoint their audience.  I would have rather watched the show on DVD then read her dialogue of the show’s major moments.

I feel awful saying this, but I basically had to force myself to read every page, as the book was dry and utterly bland.  I don’t believe I have ever seen more one sentence paragraphs in any novel I have ever read.  It appeared that she was trying to come up with enough to say and was forced to do the one sentence paragraph to make this a long enough book.  The subject matter Melissa had could have given her endless possibilities, but she blew it.  I could have been happy with it if Ms. Anderson had given her attempts at writing more effort and more emotion.  I could have overlooked the endless blow-by-blow scene descriptions and lack of juicy gossip if she had just wrote more about what she was thinking, feeling, and experiencing.  I needed to hear more than I felt lucky, I appreciated it.  I honestly have no idea how this book went through an editors hands without them asking for more, more, more, because that was one of two thoughts going through my brain while I was reading it.  (Trust me, you don’t what to hear my other thought …)

I suppose it is pointless to say I didn’t like the book.  But, maybe you would, and if you’d like to buy a copy, you can do so here.

Ok, I can’t leave this review on such a bad note.  Watch thess, as they will perk you up and remember why you loved Melissa Sue Anderson in the first place.

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