Greenlights
Matthew McConaughey
Hachette Publishing
Love him, hate him – fact is that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone not remotely familiar with his face or some of the flics he has starred in.
Greenlights is McConaughey’s memoir where he reminisces about his first fifty years on this earthround by basing his experiences around the metaphor of traffic lights and his quest for “green lights” and the way he works around amber and red ones to help them eventually turning green.
Based on this concept, one learns about McConaughey’s upbringing and his formative years, before he launched his career via low-budget independent films, plateaued and the trials and tribulations on his road to super stardom and A-league celebrity status. Needless to say, there are quite a few engaging stories to be found when it comes to the highs and lows, which are amplified by McConaughey conveying them in a credible manner so the reader gets the impression that he is truly opening up about what moves him and his idiosyncratic perspective on the world.
Greenlights adds a storytelling string to McConaughey’s bow and there is more to be found than the mere recounting of occurrences as he infuses his stories with nuances of wit, self-deprecating humour and melancholy, without running danger of fabrication or sacrificing consistency.
Given his view on things and his outlook, the gist and takeaway is that his career is not only the product of raw ambition, work and grit but has been forged to a large extend due to his mindset and blind trust that the universe will set him up alright.
An entertaining, nicely illustrated tome that sheds light on McConaughey’s approach to life, which in the current turbulent time comes as a welcome, easy-to-digest literary pause button.
