Her Last Death
A Memoir
-
-
4.0 • 28 Ratings
-
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Her Last Death begins as the phone rings early one morning in the Montana house where Susanna Sonnenberg lives with her husband and two young sons. Her aunt is calling to tell Susanna her mother is in a coma after a car accident. She might not live. Any daughter would rush the thousands of miles to her mother's bedside. But Susanna cannot bring herself to go. Her courageous memoir explains why.
Glamorous, charismatic and a compulsive liar, Susanna's mother seduced everyone who entered her orbit. With outrageous behavior and judgment tinged by drug use, she taught her child the art of sex and the benefits of lying. Susanna struggled to break out of this compelling world, determined, as many daughters are, not to become her mother.
Sonnenberg mines tender and startling memories as she writes of her fierce resolve to forge her independence, to become a woman capable of trust and to be a good mother to her own children. Her Last Death is riveting, disarming and searingly beautiful.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sonnenberg's curse is her beautiful self-centered and crazy mother, who lies continually, does drugs and navigates through the world with sex as her sole point of reference. Her father is cold and distant. Add in abundant family money, and you have the story of a young girl who grows up in a world of privilege, abuse and despicable behavior all around. Readers get a good dose of drug use, foul language, manipulative behaviors, an accounting of Sonnenberg's affair with her high school English teacher and one chapter titled "Sex with Everybody." The freelance writer's story is titillating, and her writing is strong and clear, though the power is diluted when she blurs the lines of nonfiction: "I have conflated or changed some events and dialogue, and created occasional composites." Readers not bothered by the conceit will likely follow along through the outrageous and nasty operational tactics of Sonnenberg's mother until the story line leads to her redemption.
Customer Reviews
Her Last Death
OMG!!!! I love this book... this book was so parallel to my life... the universal similarities in this memoir were mind blowing. I read this book in my early 20s when I was trying to still validate my feelings and pain from my past yet really wanting to let them go so I could finally be healthy and happy. But with a mother so similar to hers I found it so hard to just disconnect and with a sister OMG so much like hers as well, this book gave me another vantage point and perspective on things that helped me to make the steps to make me happy.. at now almost 30 I'll say it's not been no easier than her steps and with my own mothers health going bad as it as for all of my life and her now fight with cancer.. it feels like her last death and I'm not sure if I'm sad or relieved.. but I feel guilt for them both.. thank you Susanna for this book I wouldn't have made it this far or been prepared for this moment in my life now with out such an amazing book... MUST MUST MUST READ!!!