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A review by catevari
Beauty, Disrupted: A Memoir by Carre Otis, Hugo Schwyzer
3.0
My husband calls me a nonfiction hater. I don't think that's true, but I definitely have a lower enthusiasm level for nonfiction than fiction. I was sitting here debating whether I wanted to give this a 3 or 4 star rating and what it came down to is that, while an enjoyable read—much more enjoyable than I thought it would be—4 stars is more for a book I think I would reread and, with nonfiction in general and this book in particular, I seldom feel the need to revisit it once it's done.
I'm familiar with Carre Otis in the way most people are; her starring role in Zalman King's Wild Orchid and her subsequent marriage to Mickey Rourke. At the time, I was fascinated with the movie, and Otis, but from where I was sitting—being largely uninterested in the fashion industry or the models that populate it—she largely disappeared from public view. So there was some morbid interest in picking up this biography, sure, because of her sensationalized relationship with Rourke, but I was also interested in (finally) seeing who Otis is as a person and finding out more about her in her own words.
On the one hand, I think that the candor and dispassion with which Otis presents her story is remarkable and brave. It would've been easy to paint herself as a victim—especially as she was inarguably victimized many times over the course of her life—but I felt like she did a good job of owning her own damage and contextualizing her own contributions to the various messes and drama in her life.
As well, it's difficult for anyone who's been through any one of the experiences she's been through—sexual abuse/rape, domestic violence, drug abuse—to come forward and talk about it, especially outside of safe spaces (like therapy) that are designed to put those events in self-useful context. For Otis to do so in such a public arena, and one that guarantees criticism, takes courage. It just does. It seems especially brave considering how clearly she internalized a lot of the criticism around her performance in Wild Orchid.
I was glad for the opportunity to place the little snippets that I knew about Otis into a greater context. I also enjoyed reading about her journey, from fragility into strength, from deep unhappiness to a much greater serenity.
I'm familiar with Carre Otis in the way most people are; her starring role in Zalman King's Wild Orchid and her subsequent marriage to Mickey Rourke. At the time, I was fascinated with the movie, and Otis, but from where I was sitting—being largely uninterested in the fashion industry or the models that populate it—she largely disappeared from public view. So there was some morbid interest in picking up this biography, sure, because of her sensationalized relationship with Rourke, but I was also interested in (finally) seeing who Otis is as a person and finding out more about her in her own words.
On the one hand, I think that the candor and dispassion with which Otis presents her story is remarkable and brave. It would've been easy to paint herself as a victim—especially as she was inarguably victimized many times over the course of her life—but I felt like she did a good job of owning her own damage and contextualizing her own contributions to the various messes and drama in her life.
As well, it's difficult for anyone who's been through any one of the experiences she's been through—sexual abuse/rape, domestic violence, drug abuse—to come forward and talk about it, especially outside of safe spaces (like therapy) that are designed to put those events in self-useful context. For Otis to do so in such a public arena, and one that guarantees criticism, takes courage. It just does. It seems especially brave considering how clearly she internalized a lot of the criticism around her performance in Wild Orchid.
I was glad for the opportunity to place the little snippets that I knew about Otis into a greater context. I also enjoyed reading about her journey, from fragility into strength, from deep unhappiness to a much greater serenity.