Although I was a huge fan of the books as a kid, I don’t think I’ve ever watched an episode of the TV show Little House on the Prairie. However, I saw Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated and the titled intrigued me, so I snagged it. It turned out to be a really good read — dark and funny. Alison Arngrim definitely has the whole, “heal thyself through laughter” thing down. And the girl has a lot to heal.
“By making me a bitch, you have freed me from the trite, sexist, bourgeois prison of “likeability.” Any idiot can be liked. It takes talent to scare the crap out of people.”
Even before she began work on Little House on the Prairie at age 12, Alison Arngrim was quite familiar with showbiz. Her mother voiced hundreds of cartoon characters, and her father acted as a manager/agent. And then there was her older brother — a teenage heartthrob who routinely molested and abused Arngrim, beginning when she was around six years old, and introduced her to drugs and alcohol. Arngrim actually tried telling her parents this, but they just couldn’t believe her. So when Arngrim was cast as that little bitch Nellie on Little House, she found great release in the chance to scream and yell and fight. She also found a surrogate family, especially in co-star Melissa Gilbert (Laura).
Beyond Little House, which of course was a major influence on Arngrim and she tells some great stories about the show, she’s also had an excellent career as an activist and speaker. In addition to advocating for victims of child abuse, she’s also been involved in AIDS research and activism. She’s an incredible woman, and an excellent writer — the book alternates humor and tragedy and strikes an excellent balance between the two.
