Managing Expectations

A Memoir in Essays

By: Minnie Driver

Narrated by: Minnie Driver

A charming, poignant, and mesmerizing memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn’t.

In this intimate, beautifully crafted collection, Driver writes and narrates with disarming charm and candor about her bohemian upbringing between England and Barbados; her post-university travails and triumphs—from being the only student in her acting school not taken on by an agent to being discovered at a rave in a muddy field in the English countryside; shooting to fame in one of the most influential films of the 1990s and being nominated for an Academy Award; and finding the true light of her life, her son. She chronicles her unconventional career path, including the time she gave up on acting to sell jeans in Uruguay, her journey as a single parent, and the heartbreaking loss of her mother.

Like Lena Dunham in Not That Kind of Girl, Gabrielle Union in We’re Going to Need More Wine and Patti Smith in Just Kids, Driver writes with razor-sharp humor and grace as she explores navigating the depths of failure, fighting for success, discovering the unmatched wonder and challenge of motherhood, and wading through immeasurable grief. Effortlessly charming, deeply funny, personal, and honest, Managing Expectations reminds us of the way life works out—even when it doesn’t.

Also included at the end of this audiobook is a conversation between Minnie Driver her friend Emma Forrest.

Wonderful.

I love it. As an Audible bio, read by the author, the whole book really hits home. The hardest part is to stop anywhere before the end.

Thoroughly enjoyable

Loved how Minnie expressed what was happening her and how she was processing it, both in the short arcs of the essays and the longer arc of her life. Beautiful prose, delightfully narrated.

Interesting all the way through

This book made me want to watch or rewatch her movies! Great history to understand her drive in life!

Wanted more

Really hope there is a sequel. I have so many questions! Great essays and they tie together well. I loved the way she narrated, you could feel the emotion.

Great audiobook

Interesting and she’s such an elegant writer! I would have preferred some endings to some of the essays, they left me wanting more details. Especially after her trip in Miami alone as a kid!