I read the book Unsinkable by Debbie Reynolds because the audiobook was on sale (that’s the only reason I bought it). The book fit nicely into a theme for the book challenge I joined this year.
I “read” the audiobook, so I received the content in Debbie Reynold’s voice and cadence. She has one of those voices that makes you feel comfortable and welcomed; even though we obviously were not in the room together, I felt like we were sitting over brunch and she was sharing stories from her life. If that’s translating over an audiobook, I can’t imagine how wonderful it must have felt to be in her presence. Some people just have this impact on people. Based on the stories in her book, it seemed that she did too.
What shown through the tales of misfortune and naivety is her kindness, which never faltered. She never lost faith in people and never stopped seeing the good in them (even when burned by an individual, she’d give them more chances). I also find myself often in ridiculous scenarios because I put trust in someone who wanted to get ahead, so I felt some community there. You always feel dumb looking retrospectively on your life, but when Debbie Reynolds talks about it she somehow makes it seem like a funny and valuable life lesson. “I was young, it is what it is!” Maybe this is a mindset we all gain once we reach 80.
Although the book hooked me and I listened to the full 10 hour thing in 2 days, her problems felt like the luxury version of real-world issues. I risked a lot going slightly over my means to get a new car during the pandemic after my old one died, and I’m crossing my fingers I’ll be able to refinance at a lower rate some day so that I can stop struggling with groceries. Debbie Reynolds risked everything by putting her $200,000 of savings into purchasing a hotel. We are not the same. She glosses over any day-to-day struggling. It seemed like once you made it in old Hollywood and kept a fair amount of famous friends, your name was good enough of a credit line and you could maintain all kinds of luxury even if you sunk your entire life savings into a hotel.
At a certain point the book felt like an advertisement for all the work she had been involved in and not so much a book of stories, but I think she explained that pretty well: If it was all work and there weren’t any good stories to tell then there aren’t any stories to include in the book. I guess I can’t fault her for including mention of them.
All my complaints and quips aside, something she said in this book will stick with me: She was describing (more) bad stuff that happened with her finances and the hotel and said that she had been through a lot, then qualified that as “being busy.” Not struggling, not trudging through the swamps of depression, not “I’ve been surviving this year” but “I’ve been busy.” It’s such an interesting way to frame having your whole life crash down and dealing with the after effects. I’ve been busy lately too.