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Good read, (4 stars) not 5, but definitely will keep you turning the pages if you enjoy memoirs. I actually really enjoyed this book.
About 60 pages into this book and calling it quits. I wouldn't have bought this book but for the good reviews inside - but really, would any one read it but for the celebrity name-dropping, expensive locales and oversexed mother. The only other book that I can compare this to is Augusten Burroughs' Running With Scissors, which I would have quit also, had it not been the choice of my book club. I just can't stomach any book that mentions masturbation and children in the same scene. The fact that the author and her sister were allowed to remain with their mother, despite the father's purportedly patrician parents is frankly unbelievable, as is much of what I've read so far.60 pages in, I don't care enough about any of the characters to bother continuing. What is touted as a brave memoir seems to me like an attempt to cash in on a story focused on a lascivious and disturbed mother.
This memoir is haunting and stark. The picture of this woman's mother makes one wince at the thought of having to grow up with her. How Sonnenberg manages to triumph is inspiring in the nth degree.She also manages to convey the lovely and imaginative things her mother gave to her. That is no small feat.
I love reading memoirs, and this book is one of my favorites. I didn't want to put it down, and i didn't want it to end.
She loves to be the center of attention, at the cost of everyone around her if necessary.Her father, a genius writer that expects his toddler to appreciate the classics and berates her for not always taking the intellectual path. I would recommend it though, to anyone who can appreciate a candid life story.I always feel like a lot can be learned about people from memoirs like this. Its hard to call a book like this a good book, or to even say that I enjoyed it. When she is older he discounts every accomplishment she makes. Susanna Sonnenberg provides an intimate look into the lives of the people who shaped her.Her mother, a whirlwind woman with a drug habit and an unending sex drive. A woman that likes to pretend she is dying. As a result, Susanna finds herself always seeking male approval, and all too frequently in the arms of her married english teachers.Susanna doesn't manage to avoid partaking in risky behaviors, she is a product of her raise. When she starts to realize the pattern she is creating, endless partners and a path of self destruction, she winds up making a big change.Despite the cards being heavily stacked against our author, she managed to find a normal, and happy life, in a place she never would have predicted she could end up in.
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