A stunning debut memoir about addiction, self-discovery, and the relationships between mothers and daughters, from an exciting new literary talent
Brogan “[spins] the world’s harshest truths into golden, beautiful sentences” reminiscent of the powerful writing in Wild and In the Dream House (Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman)
Featuring electric, immersive prose and universal insights about human relationships—especially between adult daughters and mothers—this unflinching and deeply moving excavation of her own history and addiction recovery is equally revealing about the American experience in our time.
At age 20, Karleigh Brogan and her boyfriend, Dale, moved into his parents' home. The young couple hid their heroin addiction and promised they would only be there temporarily. What started as a two-week stopgap became two years of habitation. Karleigh and Dale's mother, Glorianne, developed a complex relationship that was both toxic and tender. Glorianne became a stand-in for Karleigh's mother, whose affection and trust Karleigh had always longed for. Simultaneously, Glorianne, an adoptee, searched for the birth mother she never knew.
In Holding, Karleigh Brogan brings the reader into her life before, during, and after her time with Dale and his parents, following the road that led from her endless lies to her family and herself, along the long, crooked, path to breaking the chains of her addiction so she could dream again of achieving the life—and the relationship with her own mother—she longed for.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Maße
Höhe: 213 mm
Breite: 137 mm
Dicke: 23 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-58642-412-1 (9781586424121)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Author’s Note v
Part One | Mothers
1. Eternal Substance 1
2. Prediction Errors 17
3. Angel Card 26
4. Broke 39
5. Gift (a triptych) 57
6. Wite-Out 71
7. Normal People 81
8. Rudolph’s Nose 88
9. Looking Glass 100
10. Goose Girl 112
11. Admission 119
12. Puppy, Piggy, Princess 133
13. Celestial Bodies 146
14. “The unending absence that follows . . .” 159
15. The Snow Chapter 173
16. Abandon 181
Part Two | Mother Comforts
17. The Name of the Father 193
18. Gimme Danger, Shelter, A Man After Midnight 213
19. The Lie of the Bottom 223
20. The Bottom of the Lie 230
21. Merge 234
22. Final Rests 245
23. New Green Car 252
Part Three | Holding Out, Holding On, Holding Her
24. Regrowth: An Epilogue 263
Bibliography 271
Acknowledgments 000