Oscar winning, childhood star, Tatum O’neal reveals her not so glamorous upbringing in the tell-all book “A Paper Life”. Being the daughter of Hollywood star Ryan O’neal and actress Joanna Moore, one would think she lead a fabulous and spoiled lifestyle but as her biography exposes is a life filled with loneliness and abuse. Tatum dealt with abandonment, drug abuse, molestation, and physical and verbal abuse. And the cycle seemed to repeat itself during her rocky six-year marriage to professional athlete John McEnroe. The loneliness and worthlessness she felt her entire life lead her to a downward spiral doused in drug and alcohol addiction. Having grown up watching her parents in the spotlight and in the spotlight herself, she claims to have been alone and neglected as her parents chose doing drugs and abusing alcohol instead of parenting and being a part of the family. Tatum describes many situations in her book about neglect, abuse, drugs, alcohol and molestation which all lead to her own demise, and the continuing cycle into her very own family built with Jon McEnroe. It wasn’t until Tatum’s own daughter caught her shooting heroin in a bathroom that she decided to change and see what she was doing. So much pain and suffering and with several trips to rehab throughout the years lead Tatum O’neal to a sober lifestyle today.
A Paper Life is a riveting, cautionary tale, like any biography, the reader questions whether these situations could truly happen to one person in such a short amount of time. Having said that, it’s like looking at a bad car crash, you cannot look away. This book is a definite page turner and keeps the reader in suspense and on edge. Sadness, pity and shock is feelings that’s arise out of the reader while reading this book, but also hopeful, hopeful that these experiences create a better person and mother and overall better life for her and her family in the end.
