Finding Me, by Viola Davis

A palate cleanser in the midst of many stories focused on pain and misery. Viola has offered a genuine experience reflecting that love and pain can exist synonymously in a single lifetime. Viola's generosity in her portrayal of her traumatic childhood, is so honest it invites the reader to be compassionate in their receipt of her pain, while in the same breathe, she invites the reader to have respect for the joys that may have been overshadowed by the darkened realities of growing up BLACK and POOR.

The depths of this offering are reflected in her expression, she is not writing a story as a mad, traumatized black woman. She is simply writing as a person with human experiences. It is not to say that we are to be ignorant to the facts of who the world may have typecast her as (both in reality and on stage), as these factors are pivotal in her journey in "finding herself".

The greatest takeaway from the book, which sets the tone for me, is that the innerchild is not the one to be healed because "that little girl SURVIVED!!!!!". It reflects that her story and really it may be that many of our stories do not begin and end where the hardships and pain reside, we are constantly evolving and becoming. When her memoir comes full circle it is not exclusive of everything that she was, everything that she is and everything that she is to become. Impressively she intersects her personal life with her career, taking on the responsibility to tell the story of woman like her authentically.