MEMOIR Rebel Rising Rebel Wilson HarperCollins, $49.99 Rebel Rising sounds like a Star Wars sequel, but is in fact the story of talented comedian Rebel Wilson’s journey from Australian school student to Hollywood fortune as an actor, director, writer and producer known for her roles in Bridesmaids , Pitch Perfect and, as she is keen to emphasise, “the Academy Award-winning Jojo Rabbit ”. As the blurb on this 358-page book puts it: “This memoir shows us how to love ourselves, while making us laugh uncontrollably.
” If only. Rebel Wilson at the 2022 AACTA Awards in Sydney. Credit: Caroline McCredie/Getty The zeitgeist dictates that modern celebrity memoirs follow a certain formula: hard-scrabble upbringing, trauma, ill-health, overcoming adversity, life-threatening situations, an embarrassing defecation incident, kiss-and-tell confessionals, celebrity encounters, and ultimately, enlightened happiness.
Rebel Rising delivers on all fronts. But it is interesting to note the unusual disclaimer at the start of the book: “Some names and identifying characteristics have been changed and some dialogue has been re-created.” Wilson’s memoir recounts her childhood growing up as Melanie Elizabeth Bownds in Sydney’s Hills District, in a family of four children where her mother was a dog-show judge and bred beagles, her father a brute who could erupt at any moment.
But Wilson was an academic success who took herself off on a life-changing and life-threatening gap year to Afr.
