Lydia's Reviews > Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated

If you are a woman around my age, chances are you watched Little House on the Prairie at some point. If you did, READ THIS BOOK. For those who didn't watch the show (there must be someone), it is good, but if you did, you will absolutely love it. I'll admit that once I read the title, I knew it would be good.

I think I always kind of identified with Nellie. She was mean, but she was mean because she was angry. Allison Arngrim writes,

When I played Nellie Oleson, she allowed me to scream, to howl, to throw things, to pour out all my pain and rage over and over again in a safe place. All of us who have lived through abuse are terrified of our anger. Nellie taught me that I could be angry, and the world would not open up and swallow me.

I also found it fascinating that being on the television show gave Alison the normalcy she lacked at home. Michael Landon, while certainly not as saint-like as his character, had high expectations of the child actors, and as a result they all turned out pretty well. Alison writes that they liked to say "Cast of Little House: no arrests, no convictions."

I wish more memoirs were as honest and real as Alison Arngrim. I wish more people were, too.