Will there really be a morning?: An autobiography

I had seen the motion picture several times but never read the book. As a behavioral health clinician, I find myself drawn to the "real world" that isn't seen by all. This book held my attention from beginning to end. It was absolutely heart-breaking to view through this woman's words how not only her parents, and of course the 1930's Hollywood, but last but not least the systems charged with caring for the mentally ill, could have treated her so inhumanely. This is to say, unless she could benefit them. Anyone in the field should read this.

This is my favorite book ever. I first heard about Frances Farmer in high school. I lived about 10 miles away from the old mental instatute she was in. They have since tore it down but the rubble is still there, and I visited it a few times and became facinated with her life. This book is the best book I have ever read, well almost I also loved Shadowland!! These two books are a must read!!

If you're looking for a book that will keep you interested from cover to cover, never able to put it down, this is the book for you! This is the autobiography of movie star, Frances Farmer, and her demise. It tells of her nightmarish mother (I found myself wanting to hurt her mother more than Frances herself wanted to), her tirades and outlandish temper, her many terrible years in a pit hole of mental institution where she was mistreated and abused and treated like an animal (literally), her struggle with drug and alcohol abuse and her experience with cancer. Whew! All in one book! There were times when I had to divert my eyes (which made it difficult to read) or set it down because I was ready to slap her mother around and my blood pressure was rising. The most incredible thing about this story is, I believe, that Frances was fair. By that I mean that she told the story as it was and didn't make herself out to be completely blameless or less "violent" than she was. She told about her outbursts and her stupid behavior made from no-thought decisions. She never said, "Poor me," without adding something more justifiable to the pot. The reading is incredibly easy. Her style (and that of the one who helped her write it) is very smooth and it seems as though everything she has to say is written in an interest-grabbing way.So, if you want a good, heart-felt, blood stirring read, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It truly is one of the best I've been lucky enough to find. :o)

This is a very important work as it documents the abuses of the mental health industry in America during the time Frances Farmer stayed in a psyciatric institution in the 1940's. It is frightening as Frances tells us that anybody can declare someone is insane, and this person could be brought before an unsympathetic judge and sent to an insane asylum, and once you are declared mentally incompetent, all your civil rights are stripped from you, and you have no say so in the matter. Reading Frances's book, you see that perhaps she wasnt really insane but tired from overwork & in need of rest. By reading this book you will also be shocked of the methods of controlling the mentally ill at that time; endless shock treatments, hydrotherapy, insulin therapy - and you sometimes wonder who the insane people are, Frances or the people who are caring for her. A book like this is important because it chronicles how such a thing could have happened to a person, especially a person like Frances who was gifted & intelligent & had everything going for her. Thankfully, treatment of the mentally ill has much improved since then, but I still hear people say that the mentally ill homeless should be locked up. After reading this book you would have second thoughts about saying such a thing.

It has been 15 years since I first picked up Frances Farmer's autobiography, and it remains by far the most powerful book that I have ever read. I must stress that this self-written work differs greatly from Hollywood's distorted treatment presented in separate made-for-TV and big screen fictionalized movies. Frances tells her true story and while most of her life was a stream of horrors, she eventually found redemption and reached a level of peace and joy that few will ever know in this life. Readers be warned-the actress is frank in her description of the brutality, depravity, and heartbreak she survived; much of this work is egregiously unsettling and reads like a guided tour of hell. Those brave enough to get through will be well rewarded, and left with an very uplifting high.In later years Frances found faith and friendship. Her conversion to Catholicism would shock many in modern day Tinsel Town but gave her the fulfillment that eluded her for most of her life. Her first friendship-which she defines as the purest form of love-formed in middle-age gives further testimony to her late discovery of the wonders of God. This late embrace of religion is both ironic and extra-encouraging considering her teenage celebration of atheism. Before her movie career, the actress achieved some fame by entering a Communist organization's essay contest and winning a trip to the Soviet Union with an entry entitled "God Dies."In her denouement which included a losing fight to cancer, she realized how lucky she was that "God Lives."