Her Last Death

If the phone rang one morning and a relative said your mother was dying, would you go? I would, but then I have an extraordinarily strong relationship with my mother. Susanna Sonnenberg doesn't go, and in this memoir she explains why she doesn't go to her mother's bedside when her mothe is dying from an automobile accident.

Reading this book I had flashbacks to another memoir that sounded about as gritty (and was later on found to be part fake) - James Frey's A Million Little Pieces. Reading this book makes one wonder if parents such as Sonnenberg's exist - they obviously do, otherwise we wouldn't need foster care.

The memoir gives us a picture of an appalling mother who is maybe bipolar and definitely unstable. It also tells us of the author's attempts to be the best and most normal mother she can be, and that is what makes this book readable for me. The book doesn't give a satisfactory explanation of why the author's mother the person she is, but then that is true of most life situations. It's hard to explain what makes a person who they are.