Dreaming:: Hard Luck and Good Times in America - Hardcover

See, Carolyn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679430261 ISBN 13: 9780679430261

Publisher: Random House, 1995

Synopsis

The award-winning author of Golden Days and The Rest Is Done With Mirrors now tells her life story and that of her family--one in which heavy drinking and, later, recreational drugs, were something of a family tradition. A fiercely funny and deeply empathetic book which shows that the wild life, for better and worse, has made us what we are. Photos.

About this title

About the Author:

Carolyn See has a Ph.D. in American literature from UCLA, where she is an adjunct professor of English.

From Booklist:

"Are you strong?" asked See's half-sister, Rose. And See answered, "Yes," and, indeed, she had to be to not only survive her life, but to write about it. A celebrated novelist, See has written an absorbing if chilling memoir that combines family history with a consideration of the major yet unacknowledged role that alcohol and drugs play in the lives of Americans. People turn to drugs and drink to "deaden the disappointments" associated with the often unattainable American Dream, See writes, but while she believes this form of "dreaming" leads to depression, divorce, and disaster, she is never preachy, judgmental, or simplistic about the motivations or consequences of drug and alcohol abuse. Even after decades of coping with alcoholic and drug-addicted relatives, as well as her own drinking problem, See still understands the need for wildness, the lure and thrill of the "free fall," and the heedless drift into oblivion and poor health. This sustained honesty, ambivalence, and, yes, valor have enabled See not only to forgive her parents, husbands, and half-sister for their appalling behavior, but also to tell their stories with vigor, humor, pragmatism, and great narrative finesse. As See unsparingly describes her violent and harrowing 1940s California childhood and her hectic early marriages, which sputtered and died in a haze of drug-inspired delusions, she portrays each family member and loved one with dramatic intensity and hard-boiled compassion. It's obvious that See's passion for writing saved her sanity and broke the chain of suffering that strangled her family for generations. Perhaps her well-told story will help others, too. Donna Seaman

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679430261
• ISBN 13: 9780679430261
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 343