Saturday, December 12, 2009

Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg

From the author's website: 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 tellSusanna 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.

Fascinating story in a "watch the train wreck" kind of way. It's hard to imagine a mother who gifts her daughter cocaine for her 16th birthday and celebrates the loss of her virginity but Susanna brings her to life. Along the way she describes travel and money that have some appeal until they disintegrate into drugs and sex. She is a vivid writer with intimate details of every sexual milestone but at the same time, she says that others, "may remember shared experiences differently" - hmmm.....a little James Frey maybe? I read somewhere that her father, Ben Sonnenberg, had also written a memoir and I wonder if I should know who he is but I don't. I listened to this on audio and it was several CD's long. The author read it and I really didn't like her voice at first. But I got used to it and determined I can't decide the voice doesn't sound right becuase she is the real voice, she's right no matter what!

I've finished up the audio book challenge but I'm adding the extras as I finish them.

2 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I sure hope her memories are skewed - that sounds like a horrible childhood!

Anonymous said...

I have been wanting to read this one for awhile now--thanks for the review!