Ask Me Again Tomorrow CD : A Life in Progress

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Woman
Review: I don't usually read many biographies but enjoyed this one...Olympia is a fascinating woman.
Reading her accounts of her childhood, her honesty about the
problems with her mother and about finding herself was not only
interesting but made me wish we were friends.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Woman
Review: I don't usually read many biographies but enjoyed this one...Olympia is a fascinating woman.
Reading her accounts of her childhood, her honesty about the
problems with her mother and about finding herself was not only
interesting but made me wish we were friends.

Rating:
Summary: A Memoir In Progress
Review: I'll admit that I haven't seen very many of the films that Olympia Dukakis has performed in. If I hadn't received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins (there's my interests declared), I would probably not even have thought about picking up this volume. But pick it up I did, although I was worried for a bit. The quotes on the back cover were ominous: most of them seemed to be compliments from her Hollywood friends explaining how wonderful she was, but paying only lip-service to the book itself. The introduction and prologue are similarly worrying in that Dukakis repeated states that she didn't want to write an autobiography and that she doesn't really know who she is from day to day (hence the title of the book). But fortunately, while this wasn't the best celebrity memoir I've read, it's certainly entertaining enough.

The memoir begins with Dukakis recalling her Academy Award nomination (and win) for her portrayal of Rose Castorini in "Moonstruck". After covering this period of her life, she jumps back to her early childhood and spends a lot of time dealing with what it meant to be a first generation Greek-American. She details some of her early acting work, although much of it has a vaguely superficial feel to it. Towards the end of the book, the sections dealing with her more recent thoughts, she outlines her religious views, which (and I'm not quite sure I picked up on all the details) seem to revolve around the idea of a female goddess. Her religious thoughts and meditations obviously mean a great deal to her, although I'm not sure she quite conveyed why they have such a huge impact on her. She merely tells us how important these things are to her and asserts their relevance repeatedly, but we don't really get to see the impact for ourselves.

Dukakis has a love for the theatre, and most of her book discusses various roles she's played both on and off stage. Helping to run a local theatre gives her a unique perspective on the business and the art, so it makes for quite interesting reading when she discusses how difficult it was for them to make ends meet. She keeps coming back to her theatre, time and time again, and her enthusiasm for her subject is contagious.

The one thing that struck me was that Dukakis didn't quite seem to know how personal she wanted to be. She included some very intimate details, but provided almost no elaboration or context. She mentions a couple of suicide attempts in her early adulthood, but doesn't really explain what brought this depression on other than a few family-related stresses. She discusses having an open marriage, and then closes the subject after a couple of paragraphs. Most stories or thoughts of this nature tend to have their beginning, middle and end all take place within the same page, and then are never discussed again. I honestly do not blame her for not wishing to delve too deeply into what are obviously painful or personal subjects, but I do wonder why she wanted to include them in the first place.

This is a fairly slender book. It clocks in at just under two hundred pages, and has suspiciously wide margins. This makes it a fairly quick read for anyone interested in what Olympia Dukakis has to say. Dukakis has an unfortunate habit of telling rather than showing, and it contributes to the feeling that we have more a collection of facts here than a warm, human story. Still, I can't complain too much; I knew nothing about her when I began this book, but the writing style kept me reading the whole way through. She seems like a fascinating person underneath it all, but we never really feel as though she has taken the reader into her confidence.

Rating:
Summary: A Memoir In Progress
Review: I'll admit that I haven't seen very many of the films that Olympia Dukakis has performed in. If I hadn't received a complimentary copy of this book from HarperCollins (there's my interests declared), I would probably not even have thought about picking up this volume. But pick it up I did, although I was worried for a bit. The quotes on the back cover were ominous: most of them seemed to be compliments from her Hollywood friends explaining how wonderful she was, but paying only lip-service to the book itself. The introduction and prologue are similarly worrying in that Dukakis repeated states that she didn't want to write an autobiography and that she doesn't really know who she is from day to day (hence the title of the book). But fortunately, while this wasn't the best celebrity memoir I've read, it's certainly entertaining enough.

The memoir begins with Dukakis recalling her Academy Award nomination (and win) for her portrayal of Rose Castorini in "Moonstruck". After covering this period of her life, she jumps back to her early childhood and spends a lot of time dealing with what it meant to be a first generation Greek-American. She details some of her early acting work, although much of it has a vaguely superficial feel to it. Towards the end of the book, the sections dealing with her more recent thoughts, she outlines her religious views, which (and I'm not quite sure I picked up on all the details) seem to revolve around the idea of a female goddess. Her religious thoughts and meditations obviously mean a great deal to her, although I'm not sure she quite conveyed why they have such a huge impact on her. She merely tells us how important these things are to her and asserts their relevance repeatedly, but we don't really get to see the impact for ourselves.

Dukakis has a love for the theatre, and most of her book discusses various roles she's played both on and off stage. Helping to run a local theatre gives her a unique perspective on the business and the art, so it makes for quite interesting reading when she discusses how difficult it was for them to make ends meet. She keeps coming back to her theatre, time and time again, and her enthusiasm for her subject is contagious.

The one thing that struck me was that Dukakis didn't quite seem to know how personal she wanted to be. She included some very intimate details, but provided almost no elaboration or context. She mentions a couple of suicide attempts in her early adulthood, but doesn't really explain what brought this depression on other than a few family-related stresses. She discusses having an open marriage, and then closes the subject after a couple of paragraphs. Most stories or thoughts of this nature tend to have their beginning, middle and end all take place within the same page, and then are never discussed again. I honestly do not blame her for not wishing to delve too deeply into what are obviously painful or personal subjects, but I do wonder why she wanted to include them in the first place.

This is a fairly slender book. It clocks in at just under two hundred pages, and has suspiciously wide margins. This makes it a fairly quick read for anyone interested in what Olympia Dukakis has to say. Dukakis has an unfortunate habit of telling rather than showing, and it contributes to the feeling that we have more a collection of facts here than a warm, human story. Still, I can't complain too much; I knew nothing about her when I began this book, but the writing style kept me reading the whole way through. She seems like a fascinating person underneath it all, but we never really feel as though she has taken the reader into her confidence.

Rating:
Summary: Dares Of Self-Doubt Never Altered Her Name For Success!
Review: If you are a struggling actress, actor or anyone pursuing their dreams to do what they love against all odds, this book is for you! I would recommend it for required reading in any theatre class. A Star's light needs to brighten up the path of others to see too.

The book is not what I expected, a series of memories about the entertainment business mixed in with life's loved one. Instead you get the real deal from a real person from a perspective that can enhance your own reflections and without pity of confessions, concessions or the conceit of 'look what I have done!' More like this is how it happens to me with thoughtful self-doubts and all!

Olympia's life is not just one of just pursuing her dreams but backing up her doubts and decisions while clashing with her sense of worth, fears of family and friends second guessing her, lecturing her and offering advice that often makes one stumble rather than risk it all.

She had to deal with her not just her cultural and femininity preconceptions and others during the Age of Social Self-Reliance that made many women often cry in quiet anguish. As if something is wrong with them but ignoring the restrictions in society for you and your dreams, until you find out on your own it is up to you change it for yourself.

The book talks about how one often responds sometimes in measured half steps trying to please more people she could like choosing to take advantage of earning an education as a Physical Therapists during the 'Age of Polio' in the hearts, limbs and often brains of others. Just in case she fails at acting!

How and whom you marry often dictates new changes you never expected despite the best and worse of high expectations. Or how you seek out the truth in yourself with the help of a teacher or guide like in Olympia's 'Gayatri Devi.' And finally, discovering a new concept in history that there existed Goddesses before Gods, for a Greek Woman that is a humbling but revealing experience. And one can often feign the art of fainting that started it all!

In the end, each setback added to her wisdom, each personal victory added to her confidence and she never forgot who she was, what she needed to do, and it all added up with a grand success to set the stage for her 1988 Academy Award. Her peers in the entertainment industry could bestow one of the highest awards an artist.

Today, Olympia molds others as she did herself since her Stage Debut in 1956. She has had 48 yearly principal stage appearances, 14 of them in Directing, 29 Films, and 26 TV Movies and became a founding member of 5 Theatre Companies and a Master Teacher at NYU. All the while conflicting with her mother, having belated judgments of her father, raising a family, mixed in with self-denials, self-determinations and self-improvement often taught by the lessons of the life we learn with and the other we live with in the end.

Many think Olympia's role as `Rose Castorini' in " Moonstruck," changed her life. But from what I read from the book and what she left off in her modesty is that Olympia changed many lives in her own way. By following her own will and making conciliation necessary to work along and love many others she now inspires others to do the same.

Olympia's story proves, one can do it her way too, without changing names, goals and achievements for society, or what her family wanted but how friends and family change with you like they did with her.

I think you will find this book a delight to read and over time will come to know why and how Olympia Dukanis's became a favorite of the Goddesses and the Gods without apology or recriminations; in any event she was named right from the start.

Olympia is Greek meaning "Of Olympus Heavenly One, Named After The Beautiful Canopy Of Stars That Lights The Earth At Night." You will have to read how this Stage and Movie Star's radiance contributes to the world to find out why, and as you enjoy enlightening yourself!

Rating:
Summary: The Passion to Act!
Review: Long before Olympia Dukakis became well-known for her Academy-Award-winning supporting role as Rose Castorini in Moonstruck, I was a fan of hers based on the outstanding performances she often gave at the Charles Playhouse in Boston in the 1960s. One of the misperceptions that I had about her was that her remarkable control on stage was a reflection of a rock-solid personality. Ask Me Again Tomorrow helped me to see how acting has helped her to get control over her life. It was an unexpected twist for me.

The book opens with the experience of becoming an "overnight" success after thirty years when she won the Academy Award. The event doesn't seem worth dwelling on, except that Ms. Dukakis clearly showed her values were in the right place by using her success to help the Whole Theater, which she had been involved with for 18 years in New Jersey.

For me, the book became interesting when she recounted the story of her family's life before she was born. Several friends of mine who are Greek-Americans say that non-Greek-Americans can never understand what it is like in their families. As I read about Ms. Dukakis's family, I began to get a sense of what they mean. A dominant story from her childhood was about a teenage girl in Greece who had lost her virtue to an overseer. To avenge the dishonor, her brother shot and killed her. The pressure on her to be a "good" Greek-American daughter was unrelenting. Her relationship with her mother was very difficult as a result. Ms. Dukakis was a free spirit as a child, teen and a young adult which set her up for lots of family problems.

Having several family members who would like to act for a living, I also wondered what had drawn her to the profession and what had made her so good at it. The story is very much one of a late bloomer, but a determined one. I was surprised to learn that she had become a physical therapist helping polio patients as a way to pay for her education. During those terrible days, she even contracted a mild case of polio herself. Her story about this work is gripping, and added much to my understanding of that period in time before vaccines more or less eliminated polio.

Lastly, I was curious how a hard-working actress balanced home and family over the years. With difficulty . . . is the answer.

Ms. Dukakis also reveals a lot about how her self-discovery has occurred, especially through her reactions to roles she has been asked to play, therapy and seeking out the origins of Goddess-based spiritual beliefs.

I came away from this book having even more respect for Ms. Dukakis, both as a person and as an actress. I think you will, too.

My main reservation about the book is that Ms. Dukakis is a bit overly circumspect about how much she chooses to reveal about herself in many places. You just get a sense that something might be going on, and . . . you are pushed off into another subject. For instance, after first being married, Ms. Dukakis and her husband Louis Zorich had an "open" marriage. After becoming pregnant, the open marriage was closed for all time. I was left wondering why it was ever open in the first place.

After you finish reading this fine story, think about where your conflicts with family and friends can inspire you to take on larger challenges in areas that are meaningful to you. Have the passion to act!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: She is a beautiful woman and that is a beautiful book. Truly inspiring, this isn't the story of an "overnight success". Olympia deals with alot of adversity, both from outside and her own inner struggles. A surprisingly meaty book. The last few chapters actually had me crying.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: She is a beautiful woman and that is a beautiful book. Truly inspiring, this isn't the story of an "overnight success". Olympia deals with alot of adversity, both from outside and her own inner struggles. A surprisingly meaty book. The last few chapters actually had me crying.

Rating:
Summary: Not Good Enough
Review: This autobiography is a winner. Early on she describes the events and what happened after for getting an Oscar for her work in MOONSTRUCK and it is very interesting. Olympia has certainly experienced tragedy in her life and it is also interesting to read of how she met her problems head on in the aftermath. She has had a lot of things happen and the reader should be engrossed along with her as the story proceeds. A fast read and highly recommended.