The Sky Isn't Visible from Here

by Felicia Sullivan (Goodreads author)

book data

126 ratings, 3.91 average rating, 40 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		31%
4		38%
3		19%
2		7%
1		1%

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published

February 5th 2007 by Algonquin Books

binding

Hardcover, 256 pages

isbn

1565125150 (isbn13: 9781565125155)

description

Felicia Sullivan's volatile, beautiful, deceitful, drug-addicted mother disappeared on the night Sullivan graduated from college, and has not been see...more

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08/09/08

Courtney rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, favourites, non-fiction

recommends it for: reluctant/avid memoir readers, people who like good writing

I have bad luck with memoirs. I don't know why. It's probably my fault, but they almost always end up alienating me somehow and I almost always end up finishing them out of obligation. There is nothing more annoying to me than struggling to finish a book while thinking of all the other books I could be reading and enjoying instead.

Thank God that was not the case with Felicia Sullivan's memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

It brought m...more I have bad luck with memoirs. I don't know why. It's probably my fault, but they almost always end up alienating me somehow and I almost always end up finishing them out of obligation. There is nothing more annoying to me than struggling to finish a book while thinking of all the other books I could be reading and enjoying instead.

Thank God that was not the case with Felicia Sullivan's memoir, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here.

I LOVED THIS BOOK.

It brought me in from page one and it did not let me go. It is one of the most gut-wrenching stories I've read this year. It's a 'steals yer breath and doesn't give it back until the very last page' type read and it totally made me cry (pgs. 204 & 205 and the last chapter, to be exact).

In Sky, Sullivan chronicles her turbulant childhood, which was spent under her emotionally toxic, destructive, drug-addicted mother. When she finally cuts her mother off, Sullivan realizes she's not really free of her at all: she's battling her own problems with addiction and must come to terms with her past before turning her present around.

There is a total rawness in the way Sullivan examines her life, submerging you in the loneliness of her childhood and adulthood. The vulnerability in these pages will make your heart ache (which will then proceed to make you cry, if you are me). The story is told in a non-linear fashion, which really appealed. I felt it added to the whole reading experience. It was like being given the puzzle pieces and when you've reached the end, you can see the whole picture, and it's an inspiring one, courageous, hopeful and unapologetically honest. The writing is totally sucker-punch amazing. Sullivan is not an author who just tells her story, she is one who shares it. And that's what I loved most about it.

Anyway, I am hoping The Sky Isn't Visible from Here marks the start of a better reading relationship with me and memoirs because that would be pretty awesome. Regardless of what my future in memoir reading holds, I am so, so glad I read this one.(less)

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04/14/08

Karl rated it:

Read in April, 2008

This book was well written, decently engaging, somewhat disturbing, but in the end I keep wondering if the author will inevitably return to a life of addiction? She claims to be done with drugs, but drinks no more than two glasses of wine a week. She grew up with a mother who never told her who her father was. Mom was introduced to cocaine by a boyfriend and from that time on it's one horrific event after another. The author's telling of her story seems to be a drawn out disgorging of the ps...more

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08/13/08

Peter rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Peter by: A friend and writing mentor.

Felicia Sullivan is a skilled writer. I read a previous reviewer who wrote that Sullivan’s writing is 'workshoppy'. Sullivan touches on criticism of her writing in the book. There’s a brief section where she expresses what many writers feel when their work is dismissed out of hand. I felt for her when she wrote about the difficulty of exposing oneself to other people and then getting shot down for errors in syntax and spelling. Workshops are a trust, sacred to me, and participants have a dut...more Felicia Sullivan is a skilled writer. I read a previous reviewer who wrote that Sullivan’s writing is 'workshoppy'. Sullivan touches on criticism of her writing in the book. There’s a brief section where she expresses what many writers feel when their work is dismissed out of hand. I felt for her when she wrote about the difficulty of exposing oneself to other people and then getting shot down for errors in syntax and spelling. Workshops are a trust, sacred to me, and participants have a duty of fairness to the writer. Tearing out pages from Strunk and White and one-word potshots are a violation of that trust. What exactly does ‘workshoppy’ mean? Perhaps the author leans a bit hard on 'tricks of the trade,' such as internal rhymes, consonance and the like, but this tendency seems common in writers of her generation and she shouldn’t take the blame for listening to advice that helped her get a book published. I do think Sullivan focused a bit too much on style and not quite enough on substance. I detected what may have been poetry reworked into prose. Nothing really wrong with that, I suppose. Why not just include some poetry in the book? I may be completely off the mark here.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. I'll confess a prejudice in favor of the author who is my home girl in space but not time. We both grew up in the same part of Brooklyn but I was long gone from there before she was born.

I liked structure of the book, particularly the way she divided her chapters, some into specific years, and others into much longer periods of time. Sometimes a particular year has a theme that needs to be explored while other themes occur over longer periods. I’ll copy this idea if I ever manage to complete my book. One of the last chapters, 'Stop Time,' seems out of place and looks a great deal like an essay that doesn't seem to further the story much. However, I found it to be one of the best-written portions of her book.

There were two plot points in the book that irked me. There was a great deal of foreshadowing about something that never comes to fruition in the book. I felt cheated on that score. In addition Sullivan alludes to something in the latter part of the book and it feels like she’s playing games with the reader. Did it happen or not? It wasn't clear to me and it was too important an issue for her to blur.

There's too much emphasis placed on all the bad things and one gets the distinct feeling that Sullivan overplays her 'poor girl from Brooklyn' hand. While her life was no bed of roses, it seems implausible that she made it so far without more help than she acknowledges in the text. Book dedications alone do not satisfy the requirement in this instance. Authors get to choose what to include in their book. Who am I to say? It just seems like there is a bit too much credit taking for her success and blaming for her problems.

Every sad life includes a few laughs. The dearth of humor detracts from a story that asks for sympathy and imposes so much sadness. We all have friends that can make us laugh and cry and they’re our best friends. Friends that only make us cry are the reason for caller ID. There’s only so much we can take. I still care about what happened but the narrator could have made me care more. Even so, in the end, I did care.
(less)

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02/03/08

Katrina rated it:

recommends it for: Everyone!

Once in a while I read a book that brings me to my figurative knees. This is one of those books. Felicia writes of growing up in the shadow of a fiercely protective (at times), careless (at other times), seductive, larger-than life, drug-addicted mother who disappeared from her life when Felicia graduated from college. Amazingly, she survived the dangerous situations in which her mother placed her, but not unscathed. Like the generational cycles that occur in many families, Felicia found herself...more Once in a while I read a book that brings me to my figurative knees. This is one of those books. Felicia writes of growing up in the shadow of a fiercely protective (at times), careless (at other times), seductive, larger-than life, drug-addicted mother who disappeared from her life when Felicia graduated from college. Amazingly, she survived the dangerous situations in which her mother placed her, but not unscathed. Like the generational cycles that occur in many families, Felicia found herself battling the same alcohol and cocaine addictions her mother had. Only, Felicia's story, her life, is much, much different.

"You accepted these things as fact: Normal people shot heroin in their arms, in the spaces between their toes, in their neck. This was normal. This was normal. You kept repeating that to yourself as you played house with Big Michelle, the blond-haired plastic doll with the blue eyes that fell out, the doll that towered over you. When the meth addicts dropped by, raking their arms because of the itch, you colored in the lines of your coloring books with crayons that has exotic names like honeydew and cobalt."

and then later:

"Here on your desk is the stack of business cards that read Felicia C. Sullivan, Project Manager. This is 2001 and you work in a restaurant at a venture capital-backed dot-com. The cards' presence somehow comforts you. Why can't you stop shaking? You know logically that your body is here, but you can't feel it--your lips are numb, limbs slack, toes smothered in these crocodile shoes. And when you talk about milestones, forecasts, and budgets, you get your first nosebleed. Your boss winces and hands you his clean napkin and says, wipe here, wipe there."

But Felicia emerges the woman she was meant to be, the woman she always was: a strong, honest, vibrant, beautiful soul, and sober. I can't help thinking that Gus, "the man who is not my father but whom over the last fifteen years I've come to call my father," helped to save her life.

Beautifully written, with unflinching honesty, "The Sky Isn't Visible From Here" is a work of the highest art. A brave story, it underscores how a life can be devastating and hopeful in equal measures. Though it brought me to tears in several places, they were tears of admiration, admiration for the fine, strong spirit of the woman who wrote it.(less)

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11/19/08

Kathleen rated it:

Read in November, 2008

Normally, I find memoirs some of the best books I read. I love compelling details like the Red Pumas in this book. Perhaps I've read too many books about down and out childhoods recently. I found the book to be very depressing, and choppy the way that she went back and forth in time. One wonders how someone like this was even able to grow up with the neglect, berating, anger. While similar in content to The Glass Castle, I found it to be not nearly as well written.

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08/08/08

Krishanna rated it:

Troubling memoir reminiscent of The Glass Castle. Felicia grows up on the tough streets of Brooklyn with a drug addicted mother who cares more about the abusive men in her life than her own daughter. Felicia has her own lapses into the world of drugs and dysfunction as a young woman, but pulls herself together and enters Columbia University to work on her career as a writer.

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12/24/08

Nanette rated it:

Ms. Sullivan has a lyrical writing style which I love, but I was disappointed at not knowing how she managed to attend a great university, after all that happened - did she stay in the apartment she had lived with her mother? Etc, etc? Wanted to also know how she always managed to get GREAT jobs AND while battling drugs and alchohol. In other words, to me, the meat of the story wasn't there. I thought I may have been "biased" because my own life is so bad, I came to this book searc...more

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01/16/09

Carolyn rated it:

Read in January, 2009

NOTE: THREE AND A HALF STARS (not 3)
First of all, somebody smack me and get me off of this Memoir Carousel. Jeeeeez!

Who isn't glued to a story about tragedy? Am I the only one who thinks reading about other peoples darkness is like watching a train wreck? Maybe that's where my memoir kick is coming from.

This story consumed me. I think part of it was being close to the age of the author and identifying w/ her references. The authors relationship w/ her mother throug...more

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02/01/08

Judy rated it:

Read in January, 2008

Loved, loved, loved this book--couldn't put it down! It's a beautifully horrifying memoir that details Felicia's heinous childhood and yet not once does the author lapse into self-pity. It's brave and completely riveting. Oh, and unless your mom was Hitler, she's going to look pretty great next to Sullivan's.

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03/20/08

Krista rated it:

Read in March, 2008

Horrifying memoir about a daughter's struggle to grow up with an alcoholic and drug addicted mother. We follow Felicia as she begins her descent into the same hell as her mother and are mesmorized as she begins to pull her life around.

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05/20/08

Julie rated it:

A fast read. This may be the last in a string of my-life-was-really-messed-up-due-to-my-crazy,-drug-dealing-parent(s) that I read. I've had enough of that already.

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06/24/08

Alison rated it:

Felicia Sullivan had a terrible mother and a terrible childhood and somehow she grew up to be a really insightful person and a beautiful writer. I love memoirs.

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10/12/08

Smallworld rated it:

bookshelves: books-read-in-2008, favorites

Read in January, 2008

My review here:
http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2008...

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07/05/08

Erik rated it:

Read in July, 2008

The language is a little rough and workshoppy. But I'm glad this memoir was published.

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11/26/07

Jan rated it:

Read in November, 2007

Another memoir of a really really sad childhood.

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06/03/08

Sharon rated it:

Read in June, 2008

gut-wrenching reading at times

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05/09/08

David Rogers rated it:

Read in February, 2008

Memoir that is art.

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02/20/08

Brandy rated it:

Hard to follow at times.

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12/29/08

Caryn rated it:

Halfway through the book I wanted to stop - no, take that back - 1/4 way through the book I wanted to stop, because it made me angry. It's a tough book, but well written and a worthwhile read.

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11/17/08

Kristy rated it:

I couldn't put this book down. You root for this author in her true tale of living a far from healthy existence with her mom's issues always lurking in the shadows.

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