Driving with Dead People - Couverture souple

Holloway, Monica

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1847390749 ISBN 13 : 9781847390745

Editeur : Simon & Schuster UK, 2007

Synopsis

Unusual book

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

Death lurks everywhere in Holloway's childhood. A neighbor boy accidentally shoots and kills a train conductor; a little girl is mowed down by a motorist. Her father's main hobby is filming grisly car wrecks and natural disasters, and her best friend's family runs the town mortuary. Observing the dead in their coffins, Monica wonders: would she be better off in a casket than alive in her parents' home? In this memoir, Holloway (an actress turned writer) tackles the horrifyingly familiar story of father/daughter incest: the secrecy that surrounds it and the ways it corrodes families from the inside out. Even though her memories of the abuse were repressed, evidence cropped up everywhere, from her chronic bed-wetting and compulsive lying as a girl to her adult attraction to abusive men; when her older sister, JoAnn, comes forward with her recollections, Holloway begins to remember her own trauma. As a writer, Holloway might not be in Mary Karr's league, but her blunt sentences deliver the unvarnished truth. In coming to terms with her tragedy, Holloway writes, "Knowing there is no cavalry is much better than hoping for a cavalry that never comes." Her memoir sings with the power of a disenfranchised woman finally finding her own voice, and her brutal memoir is hard to forget. (Mar.) PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
‘Driving With Dead People is a heartbreaking story, but it’s made entertaining and readable thanks to Monica’s sharp, witty recollection of the eccentric characters and strange incidents that popped up throughout her early years’ Four stars, Heat 18/8
‘Quirky reads don’t get much more out there than this...This is a classic – and the honest, eloquent storytelling is a tribute to Holloway’s resilience’ Glamour Magazine, September
‘An extraordinary and sometimes humorous account of life in an eccentric and dysfunctional family. Escaping to the local funeral parlour to get away from her father, Holloway captures perfectly her childhood resilience and coming of age’ InStyle Magazine, September
'A gripping read, the book's conclusion will stay with you long after you finish the last page' WOMAN'S WAY (Ireland)
'A wonderfully moving, funny, sad autobiography. At times, a female Augusten Burroughs' GAY TIMES

Quatrième de couverture :

'Julie and I took turns lying in our favourite coffins. Mine always had a pink interior encased by a light-coloured wood, usually maple. Julie, being somewhat introspective, chose walnut, always with a blue interior…'
At nine years old, Monica Holloway develops a fascination with the local funeral home. Small wonder, with an ambulance-chasing father whose home movies feature more footage of disasters than of his children. So she can't believe her luck when she meets Julie Kilner, daughter of the town mortician, and the two become fast friends.
In between her father's bouts of violence and abuse and her mother's denial, Monica escapes to Kilner & Sons, preferring the casket showroom in the basement mortuary to the grassy backyards of Elk Grove, Ohio. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies at the airport. Yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that their biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed.
Driving with Dead People is an extraordinary portrait of a dysfunctional, eccentric and wholly unforgettable family; a memoir shining with humour and a deeply affecting, uncommon sense of resilience.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster UK
• Date d'édition: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1847390749
• ISBN 13: 9781847390745
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 336