Books like Ginger: My Story

I feel sort of odd giving a review of someone's autobiography. It was this woman's life, so how could I possibly critique what happened? I can, however, critique the actual writing, since Ginger wrote this book herself (no ghost writer, no "as told to" credits).I've always loved Ginger Rogers in her most famous role as Fred Astaire's dance partner, but I wanted to know more about the woman behind the dances. She was a hard-working woman (73 movies made) and thoroughly enjoyed her life. Her writing tone is light and conversational, and in every incident she talks about, she always has something positive to say. She states at the beginning of the book that she has no interest in being gossipy or bad-mouthing anyone in show business, and so even when she writes about negative experiences or difficulties she had with actors or directors or spouses, she does not go into gritty detail, and always gives the person the benefit of the doubt. This way of writing makes the book at first seem kind of shallow, as she glosses over the negative details and gushes happily about gowns and parties and dates. But actually, she is completely honest, because she maintains her stance as "non gossipy" that she puts forth at the beginning of the book. She considered herself an honest, value-driven, likable person, and that's the way she writes the book. Of course her life was not as perfect as the overall tone of the book (no one's is), and she was probably not always the perfect well-behaved girl - but again, she chooses to focus on the positive side of things in this book. It's an attitude choice I can really appreciate.But because of this, I found myself wanting some more details about certain incidents or major turning points in her life. Not situational details, but emotional details about her thoughts and feelings at different times of her life. I can understand that she wanted to maintain a certain level of privacy (and again, protecting the privacy of others): for example, in all of her failed marriages, there is little detail (emotional or otherwise) as to what went wrong or what she was feeling at the time. This lack of emotional insight gives the book a sort of "overview" kind of feel, as if one were reading a Wikipedia article that just happened to written in the first person. It's because of this emotional distance that I had to rate this book with four stars instead of five.Despite the shallow details and lack of deep emotional insight, I truly enjoyed this book. My respect for this Hollywood legend has gone way up. She was an honest, hard-working person who kept her faith at the center of her life, always chose to find the good in any situation or person, and looked back on her life with very few regrets. May everyone aspire to live such a life, and be able to write about it (whether they are good writers or not) with equal grace.