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True Crimes: A Family Album
From acclaimed literary talent and New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Harrison comes a collection of provocative and illuminating essays. In True Crimes, conventional ideas of love, loss, forgiveness, and memory are transformed—complicated, upended, and reimagined by one of the foremost memoirists of our time.
In essays written over the course of more than a decade, Kathryn Harrison has created a beautifully detailed and rigorously honest family album. With tenderness and wisdom, compassion and humor, Harrison writes about the things we don’t always discuss, casting light on what lurks beneath the surface of everyday life, sifting through the artifacts of memory to find what haunts and endures.
Both serious and surprising, these essays capture the moments and impulses that shape a family. In “Keeping Vigil,” Harrison reflects on the loss of her beloved father-in-law, and how he managed to repair something her own father had broken. In “Holiday Lies,” she describes the uneasy but necessary task of lying to her children about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, withholding certain truths to protect their innocence. In “Mini-Me,” she writes about how the birth of her youngest daughter—who used to pry open a sleeping Harrison’s eyes—finally allowed her to understand her own mother’s complicated attitudes about parenting. And in “True Crime,” Harrison writes for the first time in the almost two decades since the publication of The Kiss about her affair with her father, and how she has reckoned with the girl she once was.
With gorgeous prose and unflinching self-examination, True Crimes is a powerful and unforgettable literary tour de force.
In essays written over the course of more than a decade, Kathryn Harrison has created a beautifully detailed and rigorously honest family album. With tenderness and wisdom, compassion and humor, Harrison writes about the things we don’t always discuss, casting light on what lurks beneath the surface of everyday life, sifting through the artifacts of memory to find what haunts and endures.
Both serious and surprising, these essays capture the moments and impulses that shape a family. In “Keeping Vigil,” Harrison reflects on the loss of her beloved father-in-law, and how he managed to repair something her own father had broken. In “Holiday Lies,” she describes the uneasy but necessary task of lying to her children about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, withholding certain truths to protect their innocence. In “Mini-Me,” she writes about how the birth of her youngest daughter—who used to pry open a sleeping Harrison’s eyes—finally allowed her to understand her own mother’s complicated attitudes about parenting. And in “True Crime,” Harrison writes for the first time in the almost two decades since the publication of The Kiss about her affair with her father, and how she has reckoned with the girl she once was.
With gorgeous prose and unflinching self-examination, True Crimes is a powerful and unforgettable literary tour de force.
222 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 2016
31 people are currently reading
1038 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Harrison
47 books297 followersKathryn Harrison is the author of the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water.
She has also written memoirs, The Kiss and The Mother Knot, a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago, a biography, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and a collection of personal essays, Seeking Rapture.
Ms. Harrison is a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review; her essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Salon, and other publications.
She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.
She has also written memoirs, The Kiss and The Mother Knot, a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago, a biography, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and a collection of personal essays, Seeking Rapture.
Ms. Harrison is a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review; her essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Salon, and other publications.
She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
February 10, 2016
This is the first book I've read by Kathryn Harrison, but it won't be the last. She tells her life story through a series of beautifully written essays, most of which have been previously published but are tweaked for inclusion in this volume. Each is a gem, an unapologetic, cleareyed assessment of her complicated relationships with her mother and grandmother, with their relationship with each other. That she infamously was abused by her father at the age of 20 is alluded to, and that trauma approached through her references to multiple years of therapy. Her own marriage appears to be one of the most sane I've encountered, but then it appears that when writers marry writers, that bond creates a stability, but that's just conjecture. Very fine.
April 18, 2016
Kathryn Harrison writes confessional, exploitive essays. I was not familiar with the form, but apparently the more you tell the better. Her work starts out well enough with a discussion of an unwanted dog –and a wanted one. Much later she tells us why she wanted the outrageous Pug. I found this essay tender and to the core. What do you do with something you do not want but which means something to others. Our parents merely gave the offending beast to “someone in the country.”
She then goes on to detective magazines and her fetish for the morbid, which in some way is tied to her incestuous relation with her father. She writes of thyroid problems in Italy. Wax Santas. In particular she writes of her hatred of her mother and her mother’s hatred of the daughter. Her love of grandfather and grandmother. A weak portrait of writer seeking Joan of Arc also fills the pages. (The last is very creative writer teacher material—that is a writer writing about herself as a writer rather than the subject itself, defining in itself the phrase “journo procedural.”)
In between she develops cancer and has children, one, two, and eventually with wheedling at the age of 40, she has her third. We see all of this through her West Side New York eyes and sensitivity. Who else could have afforded a full length body portrait to map her skin cancer?
I found out things I did not want to know. Now good writers tell us things we do not want to know: Kafka, O’Connor, Didion. But this open sharing of the intimate and personal arrested my sensibilities. Unlike Stein’s description of Oakland, the there is there, but why? Why share? Why must we be dragged into her ugliest incidents. When Ephron did it, we had a bit of empathy. Here, we don’t share the interest. But unlike in a wreck, she will not allow us to look away but instead grabs us by the neck and pushes head first view and taste the blood and the viscera
She then goes on to detective magazines and her fetish for the morbid, which in some way is tied to her incestuous relation with her father. She writes of thyroid problems in Italy. Wax Santas. In particular she writes of her hatred of her mother and her mother’s hatred of the daughter. Her love of grandfather and grandmother. A weak portrait of writer seeking Joan of Arc also fills the pages. (The last is very creative writer teacher material—that is a writer writing about herself as a writer rather than the subject itself, defining in itself the phrase “journo procedural.”)
In between she develops cancer and has children, one, two, and eventually with wheedling at the age of 40, she has her third. We see all of this through her West Side New York eyes and sensitivity. Who else could have afforded a full length body portrait to map her skin cancer?
I found out things I did not want to know. Now good writers tell us things we do not want to know: Kafka, O’Connor, Didion. But this open sharing of the intimate and personal arrested my sensibilities. Unlike Stein’s description of Oakland, the there is there, but why? Why share? Why must we be dragged into her ugliest incidents. When Ephron did it, we had a bit of empathy. Here, we don’t share the interest. But unlike in a wreck, she will not allow us to look away but instead grabs us by the neck and pushes head first view and taste the blood and the viscera
June 29, 2016
Warning this review may be offensive:
I picked up this book thinking it was a True Crime book since it had been shelved in the 360's. Since I like essays, I started it, & had a deja vu: yes it is THAT Kathryn Harrison, the one who ****ed her Daddy, as related in her book The Kiss.
Her first essay details how she abandoned the family dog, a black Lab she didn't like at an amusement park. She took off his collar and leash and walked away as her baffled family pet watched. Then, she lied to her husband that the dog "ran off". And went on to buy and expensive purebred petshop pug that she liked better. Yes, really. Honestly, i find that WAY more offensive than screwing your Daddy.
The rest of the book (and all of her writing) is perforated with disclaimers, qualifiers, etc in the guise of the "unreliability of memory", or "magical realism". No, we are getting the life story of really disgusting person who thinks having an MFA absolves her.
Puke.
I picked up this book thinking it was a True Crime book since it had been shelved in the 360's. Since I like essays, I started it, & had a deja vu: yes it is THAT Kathryn Harrison, the one who ****ed her Daddy, as related in her book The Kiss.
Her first essay details how she abandoned the family dog, a black Lab she didn't like at an amusement park. She took off his collar and leash and walked away as her baffled family pet watched. Then, she lied to her husband that the dog "ran off". And went on to buy and expensive purebred petshop pug that she liked better. Yes, really. Honestly, i find that WAY more offensive than screwing your Daddy.
The rest of the book (and all of her writing) is perforated with disclaimers, qualifiers, etc in the guise of the "unreliability of memory", or "magical realism". No, we are getting the life story of really disgusting person who thinks having an MFA absolves her.
Puke.
May 19, 2016
The stunning confessional memoir that has become the trademark of bestselling NYT author Kathryn Harrison "True Crimes: A Family Album". These essays were previously published in a variety of journal and anthology collections. With detail and intensity Harrison highlights her own family history with comparisons to various literary genres associated with true crime, psychology, biography, health and wellness etc.
In the opening essay, "Tale of Two Dogs" we learn that Harrison identifies as a "dog person" rather than being affiliated with the cat enthusiast and breeder her grandmother had been. Emotionally distraught she gave up the small lap dog she originally selected and exchanged it for a large shepherd mix that correctly sensed she didn't like him, and when abandoned hopefully found a more loving home.
In "True Crime" Harrison revealed her fascination with reading about serial killers Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, Richard Ramirez, this started with a gag gift of a detective magazine in 1987; after meeting her future husband where they were both enrolled in the MFA program in the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop.
Making it clear she never identified as an adult orphan following the death of her mother, Harrison recalled the troubled and often volatile relationship between her mother and grandmother, as she tried her best to remain on positive terms with them both. Raised by her grandmother, Harrison discusses the parental abandonment issues all children seem to blame on themselves. In "The Forest of Memory" Harrison examined the suicide death of the artist/painter Rene Magritte's mother in 1912 when she threw herself into the Sambre River. As she further explored the deaths and loss within her own family, Harrison visited France along the path of life and death of Joan of Arc in her final essay "Pilgrims Progress".
As always, Harrison is a keen observer as she fearlessly writes of her surroundings, travel, motherhood and the complexities of family life. Easily moved to tears, fully feeling the depth of her emotions which is what makes her confessional writing so remarkable. Harrison is a prolific award winning novelist and author of numerous nonfictional works, she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband novelist Colin Harrison and their children. ~ With thanks to the Seattle Public Library.
In the opening essay, "Tale of Two Dogs" we learn that Harrison identifies as a "dog person" rather than being affiliated with the cat enthusiast and breeder her grandmother had been. Emotionally distraught she gave up the small lap dog she originally selected and exchanged it for a large shepherd mix that correctly sensed she didn't like him, and when abandoned hopefully found a more loving home.
In "True Crime" Harrison revealed her fascination with reading about serial killers Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway, Richard Ramirez, this started with a gag gift of a detective magazine in 1987; after meeting her future husband where they were both enrolled in the MFA program in the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop.
Making it clear she never identified as an adult orphan following the death of her mother, Harrison recalled the troubled and often volatile relationship between her mother and grandmother, as she tried her best to remain on positive terms with them both. Raised by her grandmother, Harrison discusses the parental abandonment issues all children seem to blame on themselves. In "The Forest of Memory" Harrison examined the suicide death of the artist/painter Rene Magritte's mother in 1912 when she threw herself into the Sambre River. As she further explored the deaths and loss within her own family, Harrison visited France along the path of life and death of Joan of Arc in her final essay "Pilgrims Progress".
As always, Harrison is a keen observer as she fearlessly writes of her surroundings, travel, motherhood and the complexities of family life. Easily moved to tears, fully feeling the depth of her emotions which is what makes her confessional writing so remarkable. Harrison is a prolific award winning novelist and author of numerous nonfictional works, she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband novelist Colin Harrison and their children. ~ With thanks to the Seattle Public Library.
April 30, 2016
This book made me feel uncomfortable. Like when a friend tells you something you really didn't need to know about something very personal. Like when you see things you can't unsee. Reading shouldn't always be about feeling good about what you read, but these essays contained too much information. It was like eavesdropping or snooping through someone's private stuff. The more I read, the more I disliked the author.
May 16, 2020
I did not like the content of the book nor the writing style. Book is very raw look into the world of a self centered person. Oh and if you love animals, skip the book, the first essay is a peek into the her toss it world.
August 22, 2016
I have very mixed feelings about this one.
The writing itself teetered just along an edge--often times very vividly and beautifully stated, but occasionally unnecessarily convoluted.
The essay topics were uneven as well. Some were fascinating and felt well-explored, others were decidedly less interesting and sometimes ended abruptly.
I am similarly conflicted about the author. Others have described her writing as "unflinching" and "honest." I agree with that, but I still found some of what she wrote about to be shocking – – not just that she was honest about it in writing, but that she even did the things she did. Right out of the gate, her first essay, " A Tale of Two Dogs," stunned me. I recognize that she was going through a health crisis at the time, and may not of been thinking straight, but her completely unapologetic relaying of the story was pretty shocking: Leaving radiation treatment (at which she was told to avoid contact with others lest they become exposed to the radiation), she stops to cuddle and play with a pug puppy at a pet store. She purchases it, brings it home, introduces her young children to it, and names it, all prior to discussing it with her husband. He strongly objects to the dog's small size and demands that she return it, so she returns it and comes home with a larger dog. Frustrated with the dog's reluctance to eliminate on the sidewalk outside their house (and the resulting accidents in their home), as well as its relentless howling, she ultimately hires a cab service to take her to Coney Island, where she abandons it. She then goes home, calls her husband, and tells him a big lie about how it escaped from her in their neighborhood park, lamenting to herself that she will have to pretend to look for it for "at least a week." She even admits to having previously driven it to a no-kill shelter, but obviously she chose to go a different route. It would seem she rolled the dice on the dog's safety for no reason other than maybe not wanting the shelter people to think she was a jerk, and wanting to avoid responsibility with her family for not wanting the dog. I found this to be incredibly disrespectful of her relationship with her husband, and it conjured a very cowardly image of her consoling her children about their dog's disappearance, pretending to share their sadness and worry, all the while knowing she was the cause of it.
I did find "The Forest of Memory" to be very engaging, especially since another book I recently read examined the same fascinating topic – – the fallibility of memory.
Overall, this book is thought-provoking, yet depressing and kind of a slog.
The writing itself teetered just along an edge--often times very vividly and beautifully stated, but occasionally unnecessarily convoluted.
The essay topics were uneven as well. Some were fascinating and felt well-explored, others were decidedly less interesting and sometimes ended abruptly.
I am similarly conflicted about the author. Others have described her writing as "unflinching" and "honest." I agree with that, but I still found some of what she wrote about to be shocking – – not just that she was honest about it in writing, but that she even did the things she did. Right out of the gate, her first essay, " A Tale of Two Dogs," stunned me. I recognize that she was going through a health crisis at the time, and may not of been thinking straight, but her completely unapologetic relaying of the story was pretty shocking: Leaving radiation treatment (at which she was told to avoid contact with others lest they become exposed to the radiation), she stops to cuddle and play with a pug puppy at a pet store. She purchases it, brings it home, introduces her young children to it, and names it, all prior to discussing it with her husband. He strongly objects to the dog's small size and demands that she return it, so she returns it and comes home with a larger dog. Frustrated with the dog's reluctance to eliminate on the sidewalk outside their house (and the resulting accidents in their home), as well as its relentless howling, she ultimately hires a cab service to take her to Coney Island, where she abandons it. She then goes home, calls her husband, and tells him a big lie about how it escaped from her in their neighborhood park, lamenting to herself that she will have to pretend to look for it for "at least a week." She even admits to having previously driven it to a no-kill shelter, but obviously she chose to go a different route. It would seem she rolled the dice on the dog's safety for no reason other than maybe not wanting the shelter people to think she was a jerk, and wanting to avoid responsibility with her family for not wanting the dog. I found this to be incredibly disrespectful of her relationship with her husband, and it conjured a very cowardly image of her consoling her children about their dog's disappearance, pretending to share their sadness and worry, all the while knowing she was the cause of it.
I did find "The Forest of Memory" to be very engaging, especially since another book I recently read examined the same fascinating topic – – the fallibility of memory.
Overall, this book is thought-provoking, yet depressing and kind of a slog.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 22, 2016
This is a memoir from an author I have been reading with mixed results for ages. Some of her books I loved: "Exposure" & "The Kiss". Others were not to my tastes at all. I feel the same way about her husband, Colin Harrison's books. I mention this only because I am not sure if I would have liked this book more or less had I not known so much about her history, and had I not been reading her for so many years with such diverse outcome. In some ways I felt like I was peeking into a scrapbook of someone I knew quite well. I'll say this for her: she's honest and brave. As an adult she had an incestuous relationship with her father who had abandoned her as a child and then took advantage of her vulnerability when he reestablished contact with her. She detailed that relationship in The Kiss. If you read the memoir in True Crimes about her father without knowing the history, I'm not sure how you would interpret it. In the end, I enjoyed the book very much and I'm glad I read it.
February 1, 2016
Thank you Netgalley! I was unsure of this one because it was sort of literary for me even though it's essays but I stuck with it and it was rewarding. Harrison writes just at the line of too fancy for me but she knows how to make a sentence an experience. I learned about her grandmother how she raised her and her mother how she gave her away and her father how he abused her and her issues with dogs. Honestly two essays made my eyes glaze over but the others were exquisite! looking at her back catalog now to check out at the library. I would recommend this for women in their 30's and 40's
February 6, 2016
Once again Kathryn Harrison has written an honest raw group of essays.She opens the door to her&their families most intimate moments the heartbreak over her beloved fatherin laws death .Her day to day life with her husband&children Her essay about her decision to bring her aging grandmother to live with them.For those who are aware of this author this is another book they will race through .For those new to Kathryn Harrison they will want to go back&read her other books.
February 27, 2016
Kathryn Harrison's skillful writing voice pulled me into her essays from the first page. I was particularly drawn to the connections she made with four generations of women from her grandmother to her own third child, a girl who is now ten years old. I have a particular interest in how maternal connections are firmly bonded or tragically disconnected so these essays were particularly poignant. This book is a fine collection that turned into a real page turner.
May 13, 2016
True Crimes: A Family Album was a different sort of book. All the stories had similar characters and could have been about the same family, yet there were different "facts" in each story that made it different enough that the family didn't seem the same. All the protagonists were women and all seemed for all intents and purposes to be only children. It is a somewhat haunting read. I did, however, enjoy reading it and recommend it to all.
I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.
I received this book free from Goodreads First Reads.
December 2, 2016
It has been a very long time since I actually read this so I don't have all the snippets down that I wanted to put in this review. I can tell you that the word "stunning" ran through my mind the entire time I was reading. This was my first Kathryn Harrison and I'm zooming around right now looking for another one.
July 2, 2016
One of the best books of personal essays since Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Harrison writes about her trip on a tour for Joan of Arc enthusiasts (funny), caring for an aging then dying parent, and a family dog she hated. Witty, accessible, intelligent, highly relatable.
October 10, 2016
I enjoyed the first few essays, but the book lost steam for me as it went on.
December 1, 2016
I'm sure this is objectively a good memoir. For whatever reason, only a couple of the essays spoke to me, and the rest were so exhausting that I merely skimmed them.
April 24, 2020
Brilliant and not for the squeamish. If porn renders you nauseated, you should probably skip this one. It's not about pornography, but like porn, the sets are relatively bare, we get to the action quickly, and we stay there for almost too long.
This memoir touches every role the author played in her family of origin (so to speak) and plays now in the family she created with her husband. Fantastically, she's not concerned with painting herself in good light - she's not out to become your friend. She is obsessed with the anthropological digging into her past and exorcising her complicity in it - again, almost to a fault.
I read the essay "True Crime" five times. I read it twice as the only daughter of a narcissistic mother, once with my therapist, once as a woman in recovery from multiple sexual assaults, and as a writer. I understand her personal conclusion, and I want to make a different choice for myself - I hope I can find one. As a writer, this piece is flawless. The kind of essay included in the syllabus of a creative nonfiction writing seminar.
I cried during every essay in this collection. I judged her in much the same light that I judge myself - which for me was a gift of making room for more truth. The kind of space where multiple uncomfortable and seemingly contradictory thoughts, feelings and experiences are, at the same time, true.
This memoir touches every role the author played in her family of origin (so to speak) and plays now in the family she created with her husband. Fantastically, she's not concerned with painting herself in good light - she's not out to become your friend. She is obsessed with the anthropological digging into her past and exorcising her complicity in it - again, almost to a fault.
I read the essay "True Crime" five times. I read it twice as the only daughter of a narcissistic mother, once with my therapist, once as a woman in recovery from multiple sexual assaults, and as a writer. I understand her personal conclusion, and I want to make a different choice for myself - I hope I can find one. As a writer, this piece is flawless. The kind of essay included in the syllabus of a creative nonfiction writing seminar.
I cried during every essay in this collection. I judged her in much the same light that I judge myself - which for me was a gift of making room for more truth. The kind of space where multiple uncomfortable and seemingly contradictory thoughts, feelings and experiences are, at the same time, true.
August 16, 2021
Spoiler alert: I found this book almost unbearable to read. Having read her other memoir, The Kiss, I can understand where her angst, anger and insecurities come from, and even her need to excessively overthink everything, to purge her trauma. However, I find the author to be highly unlikeable, self- centered and actually, mean. A scenario with the family dog made me sick, not only concerning treatment of the dog, but how she relayed the situation to her family. Her description of her grandmother at one point had some humorous elements, but it was preceded by her stating her outright dislike for the woman, and a manipulation to get the grandmother to move to NY. The long section dedicated to Joan of Arc just went over my head as far as relevance, other than it being her deep , or "fanatical" interest. Her interest in brutal crimes made me dislike her even more. Her excessive introspection and insights might have made sense in her mind, but were not convincing to me. I've read many books about and by people who I might have considered "bad people", but I usually feel there's a redeeming quality or a purpose for the work or some self-actualization along their journey where the person is enlightened or improved. This book had none of those attributes. At the end of the book I said : who cares?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2024
When I start a book, I try not to read what the book is about, just in case of spoilers. So going into this I thought it would be a book about a crime. Just a heads up, it's not a true crime book at all. It's more about the author's relationships. It says in the title that it is essays, so I found the time lines disjointed. It goes back and forth in time with little warning and leaves you thinking (oh, now she's back to her childhood. Right off the bat she alienates me with her selfishness when it comes to pets, first off because I am totally against buying from pet stores, as she said herself in the book, but then did it anyway, and because she doesn't really seem to have a clue about what it takes to care for a dog. It was also kind of strange that she mentioned being molested by her father, but then didn't really touch on it very much. It seems that she wrote more about that in another book. Anyway, there were parts of this book that were entertaining and parts that were frustrating, but all in all, if you are looking for a crime book, skip this.
March 22, 2024
⭐️2/5⭐️
Ick.
I don’t know what I didn’t like more; the fact that her essays are about as entertaining as a worm or the fact that she has a miserable and decided to write about it…
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Harrison has a weird way of writing…very strange how she breaks up she stories and explains situations. You have to reread multiple times to fully grasp what she’s even talking about.
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Okay, these essays…let’s keep it simple: there’s just some things you shouldn’t share with the world. Some things are meant to be kept private.
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Maybe don’t tell about how you really don’t like how your third child acts. Don’t tell us about how you basically hated your grandmother and wish she’d just die. Don’t tell us about how you posed as dead women in little clothes for your FATHER to photograph.
Ew.
Ick.
I don’t know what I didn’t like more; the fact that her essays are about as entertaining as a worm or the fact that she has a miserable and decided to write about it…
-
-
Harrison has a weird way of writing…very strange how she breaks up she stories and explains situations. You have to reread multiple times to fully grasp what she’s even talking about.
-
-
Okay, these essays…let’s keep it simple: there’s just some things you shouldn’t share with the world. Some things are meant to be kept private.
-
-
Maybe don’t tell about how you really don’t like how your third child acts. Don’t tell us about how you basically hated your grandmother and wish she’d just die. Don’t tell us about how you posed as dead women in little clothes for your FATHER to photograph.
Ew.
July 9, 2022
I have read some excellent memoirs this year but Kathryn Harrison stands alone in this genre. Such beautiful writing, expressing so much in few words. Masterful. The Kiss was probably the most un-put-downable book I've ever read and I enjoyed going on another behind the scenes journey into the authors' family. Like some of the critics of this book, I too find this level of vulnerability and sharing uncomfortable, but so grateful for Kathryn so eloquently telling her secrets showing us all how to be more real and open with the world.
November 20, 2017
"No! Do not tell me you bought a dog without talking with me about it! And especially don't tell me you bought a completely objectionable not-even-a-dog kind of dog!" -Kathryn Harrison's husband in TRUE CRIMES: A Family Album. Ok, some of the "true crimes" are slightly more sinister than this dog caper implies; you'll quickly understand why the maestra of #memoir herself, Mary Karr, is such a believer in Harrison's writing.
June 25, 2023
I’d first heard about Harrison through bell hooks. Originally, “The Kiss”, was on my TBR. But this memoir also struck me. The first few essays are profound and relatable in ways I can’t articulate without getting too dark. I found a couple essays to be too drawn out, especially with Harrison’s writing style.
Overall, the essays about her dysfunction with matriarchs and comparisons of male figures in her life were the best.
Pretty gruesome book at times, just be warned.
Overall, the essays about her dysfunction with matriarchs and comparisons of male figures in her life were the best.
Pretty gruesome book at times, just be warned.
November 3, 2016
. Astonishingly good essays written with honesty and emotion. The topics are the personal life of Harrison from her dislocated childhood, abandoned by her mother and raised by her eccentric grandmother, through adolescence , marriage and childbirth. I couldn’t stop reading.
May 19, 2017
I received this book free from Goodreads giveaways.
This books a collections of essays the author wrote about her life. The essays are extremely well written. You relate so much to the author when you read the stories.
This books a collections of essays the author wrote about her life. The essays are extremely well written. You relate so much to the author when you read the stories.
December 16, 2018
I really really wanted to enjoy this but unfortunately I could not get invested into this book past the first two essays. It is not at all what I expected, and even trying to read it and give it more of a chance it just was not my cup of tea.
August 14, 2017
Assorted essays, including thoughts on surviving sexual abuse by her father.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 13, 2018
I read this book a few years ago, and remember enjoying it as I read it. But I don’t recall much about it. Would have been 4 stars if I could remember something
February 15, 2020
What a random and piecemeal account. The plot jumped all over and just when I thought there was a reason for a storyline or that it would tie together with something else, the book abruptly ended.
January 18, 2024
I gave up. I found it torturous to read, hated the writing style. It was like listening to someone going on and on never aware her audience was listening from politeness not interest.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews