Donofrio, Beverly 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born 1950; daughter of a police officer father and a clerk and factory worker mother; divorced; children: Jason. Education: Wesleyan University, B.A., 1978; Columbia University, M.A., 1983. Religion: Roman Catholic.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, memoirist. Founder of the San Miguel Workshops, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; served as a coproducer on the film adaptation of Riding in Cars with Boys, 2001.

WRITINGS:

(With Rosalie Bonanno) Mafia Marriage: My Story, Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good (memoir), Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Looking for Mary: Or, the Blessed Mother and Me (memoir), Viking Compass (New York, NY), 2000.

Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary (children's book), illustrated by Barbara McClintock, Schwartz & Wade Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Thank You, Lucky Stars (children's book), Schwartz & Wade Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Village Voice, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Allure, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Mademoiselle, and O magazine. Also contributor of essays to National Public Radio.

ADAPTATIONS:

Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good was released as a sound recording on cassette tape by Recorded Books (Prince Frederick, MD). It was also adapted as a film, produced by James L. Brooks at Gracie Films, directed by Penny Marshall, screenplay by Morgan Ward, and starring Drew Barrymore, Steve Zahn, and Britanny Murphy, 2001.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer Beverly Donofrio has produced a wide range of works, but she is perhaps best known for her memoirs, Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good, which was later adapted for film, and Looking for Mary: Or, the Blessed Mother and Me. Donofrio was raised in Wallingford, Connecticut, the daughter of a police officer father and a clerk and factory worker mother. She had lofty aspirations as a child, loved to read and fantasize, and wanted to be an actress or maybe even a princess when she grew up. The reality of life, however, was that she was a wild child, who decided along with a number of her friends that boys should not be having all the fun and that girls should be able to behave in ways as free and unfettered. The result of her decision was a firm reputation as a bad girl before she reached high school, and pregnancy at seventeen years old. She married the child's father, a high school dropout who soon developed a drug habit, and moved into the housing project nearby her parents' home. Within two years, she was divorced and trying to support her son on her own, relying on welfare to survive. Her situation went from bad to worse when, allowing some friends to deal drugs out of her home, Donofrio was arrested. Depression set in, and she considered killing herself, but sought help instead, determined to pull herself out of this negative cycle. Ultimately, she managed to attend college, graduating from Wesleyan University in 1978, and completing her master's degree at Columbia University. The story of Donofrio's struggles from wild child to a self-sufficient, educated woman is recounted in Riding in Cars with Boys. While the Hollywood version of the tale, starring Drew Barrymore as Donofrio, changed much of the story and glamorized it for film audiences, Donofrio's book is a much more heartening girl-makes-good story. Leah Rozen, writing for People, called the book an "affecting, direct memoir."

Looking for Mary is a very different type of memoir for Donofrio, and yet in some ways still addresses themes of motherhood. Somewhere along the way, Donofrio began to collect the Virgin Mary—in the form of kitschy statues and any sort of picture she found at yard sales and secondhand stores. Over the years, the collection grew until Donofrio's home was fairly filled with Mary's image. However, one piece in particular seemed to change the way she looked at her collection. Stationed in the bathroom, the print image of Mary was reflected in the mirror when Donofrio came in one day to wash her hands. When she glanced up at her own reflection, Mary's smiling, kind visage appeared just next to her own, and something about that juxtaposition profoundly affected Donofrio. A lapsed Catholic, she began reinvestigating her religion and developed a strong religious connection to Mary and everything she represented. She began attending mass every Sunday and also traveling to various places around the world where people have claimed to have had visions of Mary. Of the change to her life, Donofrio told the National Public Radio (NPR) program Morning Edition, "In my youth, I was wild and rebellious and anti-authority and did everything I possibly could to do the opposite of what I was supposed to do. And then I reached middle age and it wasn't like that went away, but I started wanting to be peaceful, wanting to love people. I felt like if I could get the mother love that I didn't get when I was a child, as many of us didn't, I would finally be healed."

Donofrio's book chronicles her experiences and the people she met in her investigation. She began with a series of short stories for NPR, but the experiences were too varied and important for her to stop there, and the book grew from this foundation. Her journey is both physical and spiritual, and she shares both sides of it with readers. John-Leonard Berg, in a review for Library Journal, found the book to be "deeply personal and wonderfully written," and noted that it "invites the reader to confront skeptical attitudes about religion." Kathy O'Connell, in a review for America, commented of Donofrio: "That she is often heart-wrenchingly open to what can happen when she makes her pilgrimage is what redeems Looking for Mary from the avalanche of lesser books by women who have written about how they turned their lives around." Margaret Flanagan, in a review for Booklist, remarked that "she paints a full-bodied portrait of her inner struggle to achieve grace."

With Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, Donofrio tackles a very different type of writing—a book for younger children. Illustrated by Barbara McClintock, the book recounts the story of a little girl named Mary who likes to wear skirts that bounce when she walks. Mary lives with her parents and siblings in a house. Behind that house's walls lives another little girl, only this little girl happens to be a mouse. She, too, has parents and siblings. Each girl is warned of the existence of the other family; Mary's parents warn her against the mice, and the mouse is warned to beware of humans. However, despite these warnings, Mary and the mouse become friends, a secret they keep from their respective families. They grow up together, and when Mary packs up her car to go to college, the mouse goes along with her. Eventually, the next generation of girls becomes friends as well: Mary's and the mouse's daughters. The story is firmly rooted in fantasy and, as some reviewers point out, pays no attention to the fact that a mouse's life expectancy is considerably less than a human's, but the charming comparisons of life at different scales makes for a charming story nevertheless. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly remarked that "Donofrio and McClintock give exquisite attention to the girl's and mouse's parallel lives, emphasizing cross-generational connections and shared secrets."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Donofrio, Beverly, Riding in Cars with Boys: Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good (memoir), Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

Donofrio, Beverly, Looking for Mary: Or, the Blessed Mother and Me (memoir), Viking Compass (New York, NY), 2000.

PERIODICALS

America, December 16, 2000, Kathy O'Connell, "Statues Aside," review of Looking for Mary, p. 16.

Booklist, April 15, 1992, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 1518; August 1, 2000, Margaret Flanagan, review of Looking for Mary, p. 2079; August 1, 2007, Carolyn Phelan, review of Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, p. 84; January 1, 2008, Kathleen Isaacs, review of Thank You, Lucky Stars, p. 84.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 1, 2008, Deborah Stevenson, review of Thank You, Lucky Stars, p. 207.

Entertainment Weekly, August 17, 2001, review of Looking for Mary, p. 65.

Glamour, August 1, 1990, Laura Mathews, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 160.

Horn Book, May 1, 2008, Susan Dove Lempke, review of Thank You, Lucky Stars, p. 310.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007, review of Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary; December 15, 2007, review of Thank You, Lucky Stars.

Library Journal, July 1, 1990, Rosellen Brewer, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 104; December 1, 1990, Gregor A. Peston, review of Mafia Marriage: My Story, p. 140; September 1, 2000, John-Leonard Berg, review of Looking for Mary, p. 215.

Los Angeles Times, October 19, 2001, "Donofrio's Unique Life Is, at Last, a Film," author interview, p. 16.

Mademoiselle, August 1, 1990, Anne Lamott, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 108.

National Catholic Reporter, June 15, 2001, Teresa Malcolm, review of Looking for Mary, p. 16.

New York Times Book Review, August 13, 2000, "Mother Fixation," review of Looking for Mary, p. 9.

O magazine, April 1, 2004, "A Roof of One's Own: She'd Never Owned, Always Rented. Never Stayed Put, Always Moved On. Then Beverly Donofrio Fell in Love with a Mexican Town and Took Out a Stake in Her Own Life," author interview, p. 189.

People, October 15, 1990, Leah Rozen, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 24.

Publishers Weekly, June 22, 1990, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 40; December 20, 1991, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 76; July 24, 2000, review of Looking for Mary, p. 90; July 30, 2007, review of Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, p. 81; January 28, 2008, review of Thank You, Lucky Stars, p. 68.

School Library Journal, September 1, 2007, Catherine Threadgill, review of Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, p. 162.

Spectator, December 8, 2001, Mark Steyn, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 64.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), August 5, 1990, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 5; January 5, 1992, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 2; October 6, 2007, Mary Harris Russell, review of Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, p. 10.

U.S. Catholic, November 1, 2004, "Mysterious Ways of Mary," review of Looking for Mary, p. 6.

Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2001, review of Riding in Cars with Boys, p. 11.

ONLINE

Beatrice.com,http://www.beatrice.com/ (August 13, 2008), Ron Hogan, author interview.

Beverly Donofrio Home Page,http://www.beverlydonofrio.com (August 13, 2008).

Curled Up with a Good Kid's Book,http://www.curledupkids.com/ (August 13, 2008), review of Thank You, Lucky Stars.

Della Donna Web log,http://delladonna.blogspot.com/ (September 1, 2007), author interview.

Internet Movie Database,http://www.imdb.com/ (August 13, 2008), author bibliography.

OTHER

Morning Edition, August 24, 2000, "Commentary: Collection of Virgin Mary Statues Leads to Search for Religious Miracles," National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast transcript.