Finding Angela Shelton, a new book by Angela Shelton
(Meredith Books, 2008)
Reviewed by Katy Shively Meier
You may or may not have heard of the revelatory documentary “Searching for Angela Shelton” (2004), in which filmmaker and award-winning screenwriter Angela Shelton traversed America seeking out fellow Angela Sheltons to discover how women are doing today. But you should know about the film, because what Shelton found was more than namesakes—24 of the 40 women she contacted had been abused (often sexually) just like her. While the film became a beautiful, joyous, and often sorrowful look at the resilience and endurance of American women, it gave only fragments of the documenter’s own remarkable life story. Finding Angela Shelton, Shelton’s new book, is more personal. It catalogues the making of “Searching for Angela Shelton,” from its conception, to the funny and often fruitless phone calls to Angela Sheltons, to the emotional RV journey across the states, and eventually, to South Carolina, where Shelton’s own child-molesting father resides.
Shelton documents her inner and outer adventures simultaneously through the narrative and dream journal excerpts. Most Angelas along the way offer words of encouragement and stories of quiet strength in the face of astounding adversity, but some have not yet succeeded in breaking the cycle of abuse. Shelton, the filmmaker, realizes that while she is stirred by the inspirational Angelas, she still falls into the latter category. She physically beats herself and laments many emotionally destructive relationships and two failed marriages. Yet in Angela’s humorous, disarming way, she takes the reader on a journey to exorcise her own demons and her readers’ demons, should they conceal any. At many points it seems she might give up, the movie won’t get made. But her powerful vision of women supporting each other through openness prevails despite shy Angelas, hostile Angelas, and self-abusive Angelas.
One such Angela, dubbed Angela Anonymous, seems to drunk dial filmmaker Angela Shelton whenever she is feeling demoralized. Anonymous’ slurred voice drifts up from the pages almost as if it were the voice of filmmaker Angela’s own battered self. The frustration of working through Anonymous’ abusive patterns ultimately helps Angela Shelton heal.
A high point in the book comes when Shelton is on tour promoting her film, and makes a deal with a woman in the audience to no longer hit herself. Another peak is when Anonymous gets (temporarily) sober and calls Angela to thank her. Indeed, the book closes with words of gratitude: “Thank you for healing—by healing yourself, you heal the world.” These words ring out with an optimism and truth that make you proud of Angela, proud of all the Angelas, and quite honestly, proud to be a woman. After reading Angela Shelton’s book one has an answer to her original question, “how are women doing today”: despite all odds, we are doing ok—we are all Angela Shelton.
To read an excerpt from Angela Shelton’s new book, click here.
To read an excerpt from Angela Shelton’s Dream Journal, click here.
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