Why Melissa Gilbert's Memoir Should Have Been Called "The Woeful Tale of a Codependent Television Star"

As a little girl, I like most little girls my age, was a huge fan of Little House on the Prairie. Now as an adult, I have the whole series on DVD and hope that someday my daughter will enjoy them just as much as I did.

Little House probably wouldn't have been what is was without "America's Sweetheart," Melissa Gilbert who played Laura Ingalls. As a child, I was enthralled with the adventures of Laura and her whole family. As an adult, I appreciate the bond between father and daughter - Half Pint and Pa. It reminds me of the bond between my own daughter and her father.

So it was that one day I went to Target with the intention of buying the book, "The Shack" which I have heard so much about. My sister had just finished reading it and encouraged me to do so. As I scoped the shelves looking for the book my eyes were drawn to a very beautiful Melissa Gilbert gracing the cover of her memoir, Prairie Tale. I had not even know she had her own book. I went back and forth trying to decide if I should get it. As I read the inside jacket I decided to make the purchase. The part that really grabbed my attention was, "Women everywhere may have idolized her charming life on Little House on the Prairie, but Melissa's own unexpectedly honest, imperfect, and down-to-earth story is an inspiration."

Was I inspired as the inside jacket told me I would be? Well, let me start at the beginning. Honestly, I was captured by the first two parts of the book, Revelations and Realizations and Love, Loss, and Love. In Part 1, Gilbert talks about being adopted into a Hollywood family and her pre-Little House days. Part 2 was even more captivating as she discussed many behind the scenes goings-on of the popular series. Who would have thought that Michael Landon had such a bad temper and that he drank vodka to start his mornings on the set. It was also fun to find out little tidbits such as Melissa Gilbert and Alison Angrim, who played Laura's arch rival, Nellie, were best of friends while working together. Melissa Gilbert and Melissa Sue Anderson, who played her sister Mary, did not get along at all.

Interesting too was the struggle that Gilbert had playing Laura Ingalls as little Laura grew up. Back in the days of the Wild West, girls grew up fast and were often married and having babies by the time they were eighteen years old. Gilbert said she had always felt young for her age so to have to play someone who was supposed to be more mature was hard for her. She found it especially hard when Dean Butler (Almanzo Wilder) joined the cast and how terrified she was of kissing him and even sleeping in the same bed.

When she was seventeen, the show that had run for 10 seasons was unexpectedly cancelled and from there she went on to be Nancy Reagan's youth spokesperson for her ACTION Drug Prevention Program. Gilbert went across the country with The First Lady discussing the evils of drug use. When Gilbert turned 18, her mom no longer controlled her life, she got a nose job and the hypocrisy of being a spokesperson against drugs began.

Part three of this book was aptly named, "Hollywood is the Devil's Toilet." Really the only thing Gilbert talked about was her on-again-off again relationship with Rob Lowe, who had become a huge star with the movie The Outsiders. The relationship was horrible, he constantly cheated on her, and she cheated on him more for revenge than anything. She also discussed the beginning of her smoking, taking drugs and abusing alcohol and how everyone slept with one another without using any protection. This was not the sweet and innocent Laura Ingalls that all of America knew and loved.

Right when I was beginning to get bored with Gilbert talking about all the celebrities she had become acquainted with, there was an anecdote that actually made me laugh out loud. One evening she was out having dinner with friends when Liza Minnelli and Michael Jackson joined their table. Michael didn't say a word until after dinner when they were discussing whose house to go to. When everyone was silent Michael said, "You can come to my house, I got a llama." Needless to say, they went to Sammy Davis Jr.'s house instead.

It was a little nauseating as Gilbert continued to discuss her partying ways and all the famous people she was meeting, including being hit on by Don Johnson and that George Clooney and Keifer Sutherland were secretly in love with her. I found myself not picking up the book when I had a chance to read. This is a bad sign for me. Usually when I like a book I have a hard time putting it down at all.

When I was able to pick it up again, Rob Lowe had asked her to marry him and she became pregnant. Being pro-life I was pretty disgusted with her decision-making abilities regarding the baby. She felt she couldn't give the baby up for adoption because of her struggles being adopted, but she could abort the baby. Excuse me? It's ok to kill the baby but not ok to give it up for adoption? (To find out what did happen - well, I guess you'll have to read the book.)

I was thankful that Part 4, A Brand New Start of It, was short, albeit not very sweet. Gilbert continues to make terrible relationship decisions after her break up with Rob Lowe when she marries Bo Brinkman. She told him she would marry him after knowing him for six weeks. Not that that's always bad, but he himself also had alcohol and drug issues. Eventually, Gilbert got into AA and Al-Anon while Bo was in AA.

During this troubling time of her life, Michael Landon came down with pancreatic cancer. Shortly after that she began divorce proceedings with her husband and shortly after that she began falling in love with another guy. Was this ever going to end?

I know I sound a little harsh in my critique of "Prairie Tale," I mean I myself have struggled with some of the same issues as Melissa Gilbert. I know what it's like to make bad relationship choices and get caught up in the cycle of co-dependence and alcohol abuse. I kept asking myself, "why am I not more empathetic with Melissa Gilbert?" I'm not sure I can answer that but there was one event in her life where I truly did identify with her - the premature birth of her son who was born at 28 weeks gestation. My daughter was born at 29 weeks. I knew all too well what she was going through - trips to the NICU, kangaroo care, feeding tubes, and all that comes with a preemie.

She talks all about this ordeal in the fifth and final part of her book, called Exactly Where I Need to Be. After getting through this difficult time with her son, however, Gilbert's drinking escalates and she begins to have anxiety attacks.

Gilbert eventually gets her life back on track. She quits drinking, gets into therapy, becomes the Screen Actors Guild president and begins working with the Children's Hospice & Palliative Care Coalition.

I was not inspired as the inside jacket told me I would be. To me, it was just a woeful tale of someone who became famous at a young age and had to suffer the consequences like so many of her child star counterparts. We all have things we need to go through to become the person we are and I just didn't see anything unique in all that Melissa Gilbert went through. It was sort of the same ol' same ol'.

I half expected Melissa Gilbert to have some of the same moral values as her character, Laura Ingalls. Maybe that's where my disappointment lies. I know Melissa Gilbert was trying to open and honest, and I commend her for that but I was surprised at the amount of bad language Gilbert used in the book - that is a put off for me in general. I am glad she got her life on track and I hope she continues on this path.

Although this book did receive four stars on Amazon.com, I would probably only go with 2 or 3 stars. Like I said, maybe I'm being too harsh, but I guess you can read for yourself.