HT CK YR DAUGHTER - Softcover

Hendra, Jessica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062888331 ISBN 13: 9780062888334

Publisher: Perennial, 2019

Synopsis

From the daughter of the bestselling author of Father Joe: the poignant and ultimately hopeful memoir of a young girl’s struggle to live a normal childhood in the chaotic seventies, and to overcome sexual abuse by her famous father

Earlier this year, Tony Hendra’s memoir, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The book detailed his life as a comedian who launched the careers of John Belushi and Chevy Chase and helped create such cult classics as This Is Spinal Tap, while he struggled with inner demons including alcohol and drug abuse. But there was a glaring omission in his supposed tell-all confessional: his sexual abuse of his daughter, Jessica Hendra, when she was a young girl.

After more than thirty years of silence, Hendra has decided to reveal the truth. In this poignant memoir, she reveals the full story behind the New York Times article that rocked the world and detailed her father’s crimes. But Jessica’s story is no footnote to her father’s story. No One Was Listening is also the inspiring story of her own journey, and how she was finally able to find healing within, after years of struggling with anorexia, bulimia, and low self-esteem. Set against the backdrop of the chaotic seventies, Hendra’s memoir follows Jessica and her sister Kathy as they strove to make a normal life for themselves amidst the madness, sex, and drug abuse that her parents and their friends―many of the household names in the world of show business―participated in. No One Was Listening reveals the hope and heartache of a young girl who was faced with a loss of innocence at an early age, who faced a slow and painful recovery, and who finally found contentment and peace within.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In 2004, Tony Hendra’s memoir, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. The book detailed his life as a comedian who helped launch the careers of Jim Belushi and Chevy Chase, wrote for and edited National Lampoon, and performed in the cult classic This Is Spinal Tap, even as he overindulged in alcohol and drugs. But there was a glaring omission in his supposed tell-all confessional: the sexual abuse of his daughter, Jessica.

After more than thirty years of silence, Jessica faced a harrowing choice. In this powerful book, she reveals how she came to the decision to publicly confront her father, sacrificing any hope of reconciling with him and setting into motion a New York Times investigation that shocked the literary world when the story of abuse broke. Jessica’s account is neither a minor footnote nor an angry response to her dad’s bestseller. How to Cook Your Daughter—titled after a satirical piece her father wrote only a few months before the abuse began—is an unflinching and unsentimental look at a childhood that never was, set in a time and place straight from the pages of the outrageous magazine that her father helped to create.

Set against the backdrop of the 1970s New York comedy scene, the memoir traces Jessica’s journey from a lost and abused child to a young woman struggling with bulimia and anorexia to the mother of two who becomes convinced that challenging her father is the only way to reclaim a life that never seemed her own.

About the Author

Jessica Hendra lives with her husband and two daughters in Los Angeles, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perennial
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0062888331
• ISBN 13: 9780062888334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288