Erica’s Experience

Title: Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years

Author: Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton

Genre: Memoir

Page Count: 316

Publication Date: October 13, 2020

Interested? Buy Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years

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I would like to lead with a bit of a disclaimer: Julie Andrews holds an extremely dear place in my heart. My brain sees her as an extension of my maternal grandmother who, while babysitting me, would put Mary Poppins on repeat as I ran around my parent’s starter home yelling, “Pop-Pop! Pop-Pop!” (The nickname my 2-year-old self had christened Julie with in her debut movie role). I desperately wanted to walk down the aisle to Edelweiss in honor of my grandmother and Andrews. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church deemed the song too secular and it was scratched from the itinerary. It wasn’t until this year when I was trying to figure out when I wanted to read Julie’s memoir that I found out my anniversary is the same day as her birthday–October 1st. As fate would have it, I still got to honor my grandmother and Andrews in a special way without even realizing it. So, now that you know my attachment to this legend, I’ll get into the meat of my book review.

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Review

With Andrews as a source of constant nostalgia for me, I hadn’t realized I had only seen her first two films from her successful, early career. There is something heartwarming and simple about this memoir that makes you feel like you are sitting down with Julie over a cup of tea as she’s chatting about years gone by. Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years simply made me love Julie Andrews more than I already did.

The contents of this book showed me how much Andrews tried to lead a relatively normal life. There is a lot less focus on her work in Hollywood than you would expected based on the title. You do get some great snapshots of her experiences on movie sets from Mary Poppins to That’s Life!, but this book is really more of an ode to the working mom. She gushes about her children–her only biological child Emma and her stepchildren, Jennifer and Geoff, being major focuses throughout this book. Her worries flip-flop between them, her second husband Blake Edwards, and her parents and siblings back in England. It felt like a true representation of the plight a lot of successful women face–and a lot of stereotypical oldest daughters face. Julie’s battle with imposter syndrome, her self-inflicted guilt as she continues to work, and her attempts to navigate the blending of two homes after marrying Blake, took her from a fanciful childhood character in my head to a real woman I respect.

I couldn’t give this book a full 5 stars, simply because of the moments that felt a little too detached from standard reality. Christmas-ing in Switzerland and stressing over bonding with your children because of their full-time nannies was fairly unrelatable. However, it was interesting to see how a woman as legendary as Andrews never seemed to feel completely secure. As you find out in the introduction of this book (or if you’ve read her first memoir, Home), this feeling was likely caused by her unstable childhood. Julie talks frequently about how she and Blake were always trying to make ends meet or how things were tight for them–while still managing dual citizenship in Switzerland (one of the most expensive countries in Europe) and the United States.

I can forgive Julie for forgetting what “normal” really is thanks to her moments of being down-to-earth and truly kind. Finding out she and Carol Burnett are dear friends who liked to pull pranks on co-workers and that she was one of the first women to travel to Cambodia with Operation USA proves she was a fairly humble person who had been thrust into a lavish lifestyle because of her skills as a singer. She just made the most out of the good fortune presented to her.

One of my favorite lines in this book came near the end. It was a true testament to Julie’s kindness and compassion for others. In a diary entry from her time with Operation USA, she wrote,

People are just people–no matter their politics, their skin color, or where they live. There is no difference in our humanity; only in our circumstances.

Julie Andrews. Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, pg. 295

The one thing I do regret about this book is that I didn’t listen to the audiobook. Audiobooks are rarely my thing, but I might just have to do a re-read simply to hear some one-liners in Julie Andrews’ voice. I’ve made note of every movie of hers I haven’t seen that was mentioned inside and plan to watch them all (if I’m able to find them on all of my respective streaming services). I’m also looking forward to hunting down her children’s books, Mandy and Little Bo–The Story of Bonnie Boadicea for two future read-and-reviews.

Fingers crossed she turns her memoirs into a trilogy–I selfishly want to know her thoughts about Princess Diaries 1 and 2.

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You can purchase Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years here.