Description from Goodreads:
For seven years,
Alison Arngrim played a wretched, scheming, selfish, lying, manipulative
brat on one of TV history's most beloved series. Though millions of Little House on the Prairie
viewers hated Nellie Oleson and her evil antics, Arngrim grew to love
her character—and the freedom and confidence Nellie inspired in her.
In Confessions of a Prairie Bitch,
Arngrim describes growing up in Hollywood with her eccentric parents:
Thor Arngrim, a talent manager to Liberace and others, whose appetite
for publicity was insatiable, and legendary voice actress Norma
MacMillan, who played both Gumby and Casper the Friendly Ghost. She
recalls her most cherished and often wickedly funny moments behind the
scenes of Little House: Michael Landon's "unsaintly" habit of
not wearing underwear; how she and Melissa Gilbert (who played her TV
nemesis, Laura Ingalls) became best friends and accidentally got drunk
on rum cakes at 7-Eleven; and the only time she and Katherine MacGregor
(who played Nellie's mom) appeared in public in costume, provoking a
posse of elementary schoolgirls to attack them.
Arngrim relays
all this and more with biting wit, but she also bravely recounts her
life's challenges: her struggle to survive a history of traumatic abuse,
depression, and paralyzing shyness; the "secret" her father kept from
her for twenty years; and the devastating loss of her "Little House
husband" and best friend, Steve Tracy, to AIDS, which inspired her
second career in social and political activism. Arngrim describes how
Nellie Oleson taught her to be bold, daring, and determined, and how she
is eternally grateful to have had the biggest little bitch on the
prairie to show her the way.
My thoughts:
The cover of this book is totally eye-catching. If you loved Little House on the Prairie, why wouldn't you want to read a memoir from the girl who played evil little Nellie Oleson?
This book is totally hilarious. I don't think I've ever laughed this hard before reading a memoir. I really loved all of her stories about working on The Little House Set especially the one where her and Melissa Gilbert were in the wet suits in the river.... too freakin funny!!
It also has a serious aspect, her story of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her brother growing up and her parents not really being parents. How do some parents have no idea what is going on under their own roof, is beyond me.
This book is going on my favorites list for so many different reasons. You have to read it and find out for yourself! You will not be disappointed!