Managing Expectations: ‘vital, heartfelt and surprising tales from life’ Graham Norton

Product Information

So, this is a collection of stories about how things not working out - worked out in the end. How reaching for the dream is easily more interesting, expansive, sad and funny than the dream itself coming true.

Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays: Driver, Minnie Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays: Driver, Minnie

Thank you so much. I definitely will write more. I’d really love to write a novel. I’ve broken the seal on this. The stories you tell of your childhood, growing up as a precocious child in England with your sister, your mom and her husband, and later visiting your dad in the Caribbean, were fascinating. You remember so many funny details, like your hilarious description of a flight attendant who helped you when you were a child traveling solo to Miami. How did you recall all of those little moments? There’s an essay in your book where you write about the summer after you graduated from drama school, and you weren’t really able to find work as an actress, but you did spend a lot of time going to raves in fields. What’s the last concert you attended? It was such a long time ago, before Covid. I took my son to the Greek to see Bastille because he’s a really big Bastille fan. We were at the very front; it was my son’s first big concert. It was pretty great, but mostly because I was watching it through Henry’s eyes.

Listening to her reading this so beautifully reminded me what a good actress she is. I listened to it again as soon as I’d finished it, and after a couple of days, I listened to it once more. Having only seen her on screen (and shunned tabloids) I had no preconceptions or insight into her life, so I listened with genuine interest and surprise about her up bringing, schooling, acting, self doubt, travel, pregnancy and recent passing of her mother. I’ve been a Killing Eve fan, Jodie Comer is a goddess. I’m a big Sex Education fan as well. I love the writing on that show. I’ll watch anything with Julia Garner in it. She was amazing in Inventing Anna. I enjoyed the insight into the life of Minnie Driver. I loved that she read the book herself. I think a career in reading audio books is their for the taking should she choose to, her voice is just lovely to listen too.

Managing Expectations: A Memoir - Minnie Driver - Google Books Managing Expectations: A Memoir - Minnie Driver - Google Books

Minnie Driver has held many occupations: she’s been an actress, a musician, and even a purveyor of jeans. But now, the actress adds one more title to her résumé: memoirist. In Driver’s new book, Managing Expectations, she takes readers along for the ride, detailing her at-times unconventional upbringing in England, her journey to motherhood, and her winding career path, from the first big film she booked to the moment she was cast in what would become an Oscar-nominated role in Good Will Hunting (without naming names of the screenwriters—one of whom she was involved in a public relationship with for some time after the film was released in 1997). She shares the story of her life in ten honest, emotional, and erudite essays, charmingly proving that she was born to be a storyteller, no matter the medium. Just before the release of her first book, Driver spoke to W over the phone, calling from her home in Malibu after a morning of surfing in the Pacific Ocean. She got into her writing process, her favorite authors, and whether or not she’ll write some more books in the future. A MARIE CLAIRE BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR • A USA TODAY MUST READ BOOK • A W MAGAZINE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK • A SHEREADS BEST MEMOIR OF THE SUMMER I love stories. I have mostly told other people's but now, in telling my own, I realize how all our stories are connected by that great leveller of acclaim, loss, fortitude, and fortune: being human. The final chapter of the book is a beautiful ode to your mother, who passed away last year. You mentioned wanting to publish the book before Mother’s Day—were you trying to make that deadline as a way to honor her?

This book is memoir-ish. A tell-most. Largely because there's a lot I don't remember, and a lot that's not worth talking about.

Minnie Driver Gets Deep in Her New Memoir ‘Managing Expectations’ Minnie Driver Gets Deep in Her New Memoir ‘Managing Expectations’

Many people know you as an actress, musician, and also as a podcast host. But how did you know you were a writer? A charming, poignant, and mesmerizing memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn’t. In this intimate, beautifully crafted collection, Driver writes with disarming charm and candor about her bohemian upbringing between England and Barbados; her post-university travails and triumphs—from being the only student in her acting school not taken on by an agent to being discovered at a rave in a muddy field in the English countryside; shooting to fame in one of the most influential films of the 1990s and being nominated for an Academy Award; and finding the true light of her life, her son. She chronicles her unconventional career path, including the time she gave up on acting to sell jeans in Uruguay, her journey as a single parent, and the heartbreaking loss of her mother. My English teachers were the reason I became an actor. I started to understand plays and character through writing and reading an enormous amount. So I feel like I’ve always written loads, just not in this form. I’m a huge letter writer and journal keeper. I wrote music. When you are better known for something else, it feels like an adjunct, but it’s actually always been part of the centrifuge. Covid created a massive space for one to explore in that great pause. When I look at my life from the alleged halfway point, some patterns are revealed: one, that the story does not necessarily begin or end where it should; two, happy endings are overrated. And three, happy endings are almost never the end.

This memoir is extraordinary. Vignettes of an unusual life, the highs and lows. Minnie Driver is perceptive, and searingly honest, but she doesn’t take herself too seriously, and is also absolutely hilarious. I’m really crazy about this very young British writer called Saba Sams. She wrote a book called Send Nudes, and she’s an extraordinary talent. I’m just halfway through The Sellout by Paul Beatty and this Elif Batuman book called The Idiot, which is brilliant. I’m crazy about Deborah Levy, she’s probably my favorite memoirist of all time. She does these things called living autobiographies where they’re literally autobiographies, but they’re about her life now. Your podcast Minnie Questions with Minnie Driver features such a wide range of guests, from celebrities to your collaborators to your son. What other podcasts do you like to listen to?

Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays - Minnie Driver - Google Books Managing Expectations: A Memoir in Essays - Minnie Driver -

A dazzling 'tell-most' memoir: poignant and laugh-out-loud funny scenes from the life of actor Minnie Driver.

I feel that the book skims the surface of areas that many may be seeking, this is by no means a kiss and tell, nether an insight in to the world of Hollywood, and that fine by me. Although gross point blank does get a wee mention, I love that movie. Will you write more books? I’m asking because I’m curious, but also because I’m pleading for you to write more. PJ Morton’s cover of “How Deep Is Your Love.” It is, dare I say it, as good as the Bee Gees’s version. It’s truly beautiful, so vibey and incredible.