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The story of the tormented and glamorous star, Joan Crawford, struggling to survive in a cutthroat world, succumbing to a rage leading to alcoholism and child abuse.
A fragmented, lyrical essay on memory, identity, mourning, and the mother. Writing is how I attempt to repair myself, stitching back former selves, sentences. When I am brave enough I am never brave enough I unravel the tapestry of my life, my childhood. —from Book of Mutter Composed over thirteen years, Kate Zambreno's Book of Mutter is a tender and disquieting meditation on the ability of writing, photography, and memory to embrace shadows while in the throes—and dead calm—of grief. Book of Mutter is both primal and sculpted, shaped by the author's searching, indexical impulse to inventory family apocrypha in the wake of her mother's death. The text spirals out into a fractured anatomy of melancholy that includes critical reflections on the likes of Roland Barthes, Louise Bourgeois, Henry Darger, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Peter Handke, and others. Zambreno has modeled the book's formless form on Bourgeois's Cells sculptures—at once channeling the volatility of autobiography, pain, and childhood, yet hemmed by a solemn sense of entering ritualistic or sacred space. Neither memoir, essay, nor poetry, Book of Mutter is an uncategorizable text that draws upon a repertoire of genres to write into and against silence. It is a haunted text, an accumulative archive of myth and memory that seeks its own undoing, driven by crossed desires to resurrect and exorcise the past. Zambreno weaves a complex web of associations, relics, and references, elevating the prosaic scrapbook into a strange and intimate postmortem/postmodern theater.
Together in one volume for the first time: The harrowing #1 New York Times bestseller with a new introduction, and its triumphant sequel. This volume includes two memoirs by Christina Crawford, recounting the abuse she endured as a child and her journey to recovery as an adult. Mommie Dearest: An unprecedented memoir of child abuse, Mommie Dearest also chipped away at the façade of Christina Crawford’s alcoholic abuser: her adoptive mother, movie star Joan Crawford. What transpired between a seemingly fortunate child of Hollywood and a controlling and desperate woman was an escalating nightmare and, for Christina, a fierce struggle for independence. This ebook features an exclusive new introduction by the author, plus rare photographs from her personal collection and a revealing one hundred pages of material not found in the original manuscript. “A horror story that goes beyond showbiz scandal-mongering . . . Delivers an unexpected charge.” —The New York Times “Probably the most chilling account of a mother-daughter relationship ever to be put on paper.” —Los Angeles Times Survivor: Mommie Dearest cast a spotlight on the unspoken horrors of family violence, but the years following its publication tested Christina Crawford’s resilience in unexpected ways: a backlash intended to shame her, a film adaptation that compounded the trauma, alcoholism, divorce, and a stroke that left her paralyzed. Staying true to her fighting spirit, the author made a remarkable comeback. Survivor is more than a memoir of triumph over tragedy. For anyone who has suffered challenging despair, it is a spiritual roadmap to recovery, finding peace, and celebrating a fulfilling life. “One closes this fine, moving read with great respect for Christina Crawford.” —Kirkus Reviews
Beyond Mommie Dearest—the inspiring and shattering sequel to the groundbreaking #1 New York Times bestseller. At publication the world as I knew it blew up in my face. Christina Crawford’s Mommie Dearest cast a spotlight on the unspoken horrors of family violence and exorcised the demons of her childhood. But in the years following the controversial bestseller’s publication, the author’s resilience was tested in ways she never expected. Crawford was forced to brave a stunning backlash intended to shame her, a film adaptation that bastardized her story and compounded the trauma, a descent into alcoholism, a divorce that ruined her financially, and a massive stroke that left her paralyzed. Staying true to her fighting spirit, she made a remarkable comeback. More than a personal memoir of triumph over tragedy, Survivor—now with a new preface for its 30th anniversary—is an enlightening spiritual roadmap to recovery for anyone who has suffered the ordeals of physical and emotional abuse, devastating illness, or seemingly insurmountable despair. Crawford’s story is not just about the will to survive; it is about the unparalleled joy of coming out on the other side, finding calm, and celebrating a fulfilling life. “The author of Mommie Dearest . . . hits her stride with this strong account of her simultaneous tragedies. . . . One closes this fine, moving read with great respect for Christina Crawford.” —Kirkus Reviews
From “Grand Hotel” to “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?,” Joan Crawford played some of the finest parts Hollywood had to offer, establishing a reputation as the most spectacular diva on the silver screen. Even when the cameras quit rolling, her life never stopped being over-the-top. In My Way of Life, a cult classic since it was first published in the early 1970’s, Crawford shares her secrets. Part memoir, part self-help book, part guide to being fabulous, My Way of Life advises the reader on everything from throwing a small dinner party for eighteen to getting the most out of a marriage. Featuring tips on fashion, makeup, etiquette and everything in between, it is an irresistible look at a bygone era, when movie stars were pure class, and Crawford was at the top of the heap.
With the 50th anniversary of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? comes a new look behind the legendary film and Joan Crawford's foray into the horror genre that would make up the bulk of her later work. After the death of her husband Joan Crawford found herself in debt and needing to work. The success of Baby Jane would launch a series of films like Strait-Jacket, I Saw What You Did, Berserk and Trog. Now, take a look back at the final act of Joan Crawford's magnificent career and at the films and TV work most biographers skim over. Filled with photos and rare details from behind the screen, What Ever Happened to Mommie Dearest? offers a look at Joan Crawford's evolution from movie star to horror queen and literary monster and back to Hollywood icon.
The 40th anniversary edition of the “shocking” #1 New York Times bestseller with an exclusive new introduction by the author (Los Angeles Times). When Christina Crawford’s harrowing chronicle of child abuse was first published in 1978, it brought global attention to the previously closeted subject. It also shed light on the guarded world of Hollywood and stripped away the façade of Christina’s relentless, alcoholic abuser: her adoptive mother, movie star Joan Crawford. Christina was a young girl shown off to the world as a fortunate little princess. But at home, her lonely, controlling, even ruthless mother made her life a nightmare. A fierce battle of wills, their relationship could be characterized as an ultimately successful, for Christina, struggle for independence. She endured and survived, becoming the voice of so many other victims who suffered in silence, and giving them the courage to forge a productive life out of chaos. This ebook edition features an exclusive new introduction by the author, plus rare photographs from her personal collection and one hundred pages of revealing material not found in the original manuscript.
Joan Crawford was one of the most incandescent film stars of all time, yet she was also one of the most misunderstood. In this brilliantlyresearched, thoughtful, and intimate biography, bestselling author Donald Spoto goes beyond the popular caricature—the abusive, unstable mother portrayed in her adopted daughter Christina Crawford’s memoir, Mommie Dearest—to give us a three-dimensional portrait of a very human woman, her dazzling career, and her extraordinarily dramatic life and times. Based on new archival information and exclusive interviews, and written with Spoto’s keen eye for detail, Possessed offers a fascinating portrait of a courageous, highly sexed, and ambitious womanwhose strength and drive made her a forerunner in the fledgling film business. From her hardscrabble childhood in Texas to her early days as a dancer in post–World War I New York to her rise to stardom,Spoto traces Crawford’s fifty years of memorable performances in classics like Rain, The Women, Mildred Pierce, and Sudden Fear, which are as startling and vivid today as when they were filmed. In Possessed, Spoto goes behind the myths to examine the rise and fall of the studio system; Crawford’s four marriages; her passionate thirty year, on-and-off-again affair with Clark Gable; her friendships and rivalries with other stars; her powerful desire to become a mother; the truth behind the scathing stories in her daughter Christina’s memoir; and her final years as a widow battling cancer. Spoto explores Crawford’s achievements as an actress, her work with Hollywood’s great directors (Frank Borzage, George Cukor, Otto Preminger) and actors (Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy, John Barrymore), and later, her role as a highly effective executive on the board of directors of Pepsi-Cola. Illuminating and entertaining, Possessed is the definitive biography of this remarkable woman and true legend of film.
"Mesmerizing... A portrait of something familiar gone wildly, tragically awry." —The New York Times “Sometimes, a child is born to a parent who can’t be a parent, and, like a seedling in the shade, has to grow toward a distant sun. Ariel Leve’s spare and powerful memoir will remind us that family isn’t everything—kindness and nurturing are.” —Gloria Steinem Ariel Leve grew up in Manhattan with an eccentric mother she describes as “a poet, an artist, a self-appointed troublemaker and attention seeker.” Leve learned to become her own parent, taking care of herself and her mother’s needs. There would be uncontrolled, impulsive rages followed with denial, disavowed responsibility, and then extreme outpourings of affection. How does a child learn to feel safe in this topsyturvy world of conditional love? Leve captures the chaos and lasting impact of a child’s life under siege and explores how the coping mechanisms she developed to survive later incapacitated her as an adult. There were material comforts, but no emotional safety, except for summer visits to her father’s home in South East Asia-an escape that was terminated after he attempted to gain custody. Following the death of a loving caretaker, a succession of replacements raised Leve—relationships which resulted in intense attachment and loss. It was not until decades later, when Leve moved to other side of the world, that she could begin to emancipate herself from the past. In a relationship with a man who has children, caring for them yields a clarity of what was missing. In telling her haunting story, Leve seeks to understand the effects of chronic psychological maltreatment on a child’s developing brain, and to discover how to build a life for herself that she never dreamed possible: An unabbreviated life.
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