Barbara Walters Long Hurt

How long should someone nurse a slight or rejection?

In Barbara Walter's best-selling memoir Audition, which is reviewed today, the anchorwoman regurgitates wounds that are half a century old.

Walters, who will speak at the Free Library Central Branch's Philadelphia Book Festival at 5 p.m. Sunday, mentions repeatedly that she was wait-listed at Wellesley, her first choice.

She's 78. She received an excellent education at Sarah Lawrence, a terrific college. She appears to have loved the place.

She lists bad treatment by colleagues that occurred in the 1960s.

The woman is a huge success. She has, as she lists in the book, thousands of friends.

Revenge fiction can be devilishly fun. Complaint memoirs are another matter.

Everyone has faced rejection. Well, maybe not Tom Brady or Angelina Jolie. But everyone, as REM notes, hurts.

At a certain point, a grownup ought to get over the stuff.

You can read the review here: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20080515_Walters__career_a_continuing_audition.html