Driving with Dead People - Brossura

Holloway, Monica

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1847390749 ISBN 13: 9781847390745

Casa editrice: Simon & Schuster UK, 2007

Riassunto

At nine years old, Monica Holloway develops a fascination with the local funeral home. Small wonder, with a father who drives his Ford pick up with a Kodak movie camera sitting shotgun just in case he sees an accident, and whose home movies feature more footage of disasters than of his children. In between her father's bouts of violence and abuse, Monica becomes fast friends with Julie Kilner, whose father is the town mortician. She and Julie preferred the casket showroom to the parks and grassy backyards in her hometown of Elk Grove, Ohio, where they would take turns lying in their favourite coffins. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies from the airport, yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility, and from the feeling that she simply does not deserve to be safe. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that her parents' biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed...

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Recensione

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

L'autore

Monica Holloway is an actress turned writer. This is her first full-length book. She lives in California.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Simon & Schuster UK
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1847390749
• ISBN 13: 9781847390745
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 336