A Memoir, by Rachel Sontag.
Quickie Recap: Immediately reminding me of The Glass Castle, this is a first-rate memoir of family dysfunction.
Quickie Review: Sontag tells a slightly different story by reminding us that the physical stuff is not the worst kind of abuse a parent can inflict on their child. It's stomach-tightening stuff to understand how normal the family would have appeared from the outside, and how much suffering it took before anyone noticed that something was wrong. I know that anytime I have written about estranged family and the bizarre dynamics that I've lived through, I get flooded with emails from people who can relate. This book of Sontag's is a testament to our generation, I think. We all have stories to tell. But I think the greatest story is the one she hasn't written yet: that she lived through this crap, and is still surviving.
Quickie Recommendation: Worth sighing over.
1 comment:
Has anyone ever told you that you read A LOT? And thank god you do, because if you didn't read a lot then I wouldn't read at all. As it is, I wait for the coveted "Jamie Recommends" - is it strange that you write as Jay but recommend as Jamie? How come?
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