A Fine Romance - Hardcover

"Honest, self-deprecating and well-written." * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * "A glamorously bittersweet showbiz memoir." * Kirkus * "With her trademark wit, Bergen leads readers through the highs and lows of her professional and personal life in this entertaining and poignant memoir chock-full of Hollywood cameos. . . . Never afraid to poke fun at herself or celebrity culture, Bergen is as fresh, funny, and biting as Murphy Brown was nearly 30 years ago." * Publishers Weekly * "Bergen's rapier wit, warm personality and unflinching honesty make these stories of life and love all the more appealing." * Bookpage * "Bergen has a way of making readers think they are friends who understand her life and know her dreams and frustrations. The book is forthcoming and refreshingly human." * The Examiner * "A Fine Romance is full of heart. Even though Bergen is surrounded by celebrity friends at the turn of every page, it's evident she is about as down-to-earth as they come. There is an honesty in her writing that is both refreshing and encouraging." * Associated Press * "Candice Bergen's follow-up to her Knock Wood is among the more commendable celebrity memoirs you'll encounter. . . . Along with writing skill . . . you'll be impressed with [her] candor and wisdom." * The Buffalo News (Editor's Choice) * "A surprisingly frank and even bawdy melange of celebrity fairy tale, marriage confessional and accounting of the mundane." * The New York Times * "Three decades after writing her memoir Knock Wood, Candice Bergen has penned a follow-up, A Fine Romance . . . with candor, humor and poignancy." * LA Times * "Candy gives us a glimpse into the fascinating world of fame and shares with us the ordinary in the extraordinary." -- Carrie Fisher, author of Postcards from the Edge and Wishful Drinking "Candy's memoir is intimate and surprisingly candid. We learn, we laugh, we marvel because her voice is as honest, funny, and rapier-smart as Murphy's. Add in self-reflection and self-deprecation and you have one heck of a great read." -- Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes correspondent "Bergen is a talented and graceful writer-something she first demonstrated in Knock Wood, which chronicled her Hollywood youth and coming of age as the daughter of famed comedian and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen. Her literary voice is enormously engaging, capable of infusing considerable wit and poignancy. . . . She has something real to say here, and one hopes that her journey will continue for many years to come-and that eventually she'll write about that too." * Chicago Tribune * "Candice's book is candid, honest, interesting, and reading it, you love her more than ever." -- Diane von Furstenberg, author of The Woman I Wanted to Be "You'll fall for Bergen's A Fine Romance. . . . Her writing and storytelling are superb throughout. . . . With this memoir, we're all likely to be wishing Bergen herself-funny, insightful, self-deprecating, flawed (and not especially concerned about that), and slugging her way through her older years with bemused determination-was living next door." * USA Today * "Candice Bergen's memoir is moving with the wisdom that only age can bring. The woman you thought had everything has been through more than most of us could bear. Revelatory, anguished, and utterly inspirational." -- Bette Midler, author of A View from a Broad "A Fine Romance is just that. Candice tells her own story with honesty and humor-a story of loves lost and found, of marriages, joys and heartaches. I am not sure Candice ever realized her own beauty or how well she writes. Well, she is, and she does." -- Barbara Walters "Bergen may not have had Murphy's sharp elbows or unswerving career focus, but she reveals herself to be just as complicated and sophisticated as her television counterpart-and infinitely more introspective. . . . [A Fine Romance] succeeds in the way a good memoir should. It presents a human life in full-with great glories and heartaches and watercolored memories. Bergen tells her story with humor, confidence and candor. Perhaps she's not so different from Murphy after all." * The Washington Post * "Bergen is . . . daring in her smart, self-mocking memoir A Fine Romance. . . . She's awfully good company." * The Wall Street Journal * "Candice Bergen shows how to do a memoir right. . . . The self-possessed, witty, and down-to-earth voice that made Bergen's first memoir a hit when it was published in 1984 has only been deepened by life's surprises. . . . As a fictional newswoman, Murphy Brown was iconically brassy. As a memoirist, Candice Bergen is flesh-and-blood classy." * The New York Times Book Review *

A Fine Romancebegins with Bergen's charming first husband, French director Louis Malle, whose huge appetite for life broadened her horizons and whose occasional darkness never diminished their love for each other. But her real romance begins when she discovers overpowering love for her daughter after years of ambivalence about motherhood. As Chloe grows up, Bergen finds her comic genius in the biggest TV role of the 80s, Murphy Brown, and makes unwanted headlines when Dan Quayle pulls her into the 1992 presidential campaign. Fifteen years into their marriage, Malle is diagnosed with cancer, and Candice is unflinching in describing her and Chloe's despair over his death. But after years of widowhood, she feels the sweet shock of finding a different kind of soulmate. Candice takes us through the first years of her new marriage and shares the bittersweetness of watching Chloe leave home and flourish-and the comedy of a losing battle against those damn wrinkles and extra pounds. A natural writer, Candice is hilarious, brutally honest, down-to-earth, and wise. She may be a beautiful Hollywood actress with a charmed life, but Candice is someone who can talk frankly about extraordinary events. Readers who pull up a chair will feel like they've just made a best friend.