Tuesday, August 9, 2011

In Her Wake - TLC Book Tour

In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explorers the Mystery of Her Mother's Suicide by Nancy Rappaport.


Synopsis:  "A delivery announcement on elegant paper stamped with the date of a daughters birth; a tarnished silver baby cup, dented at the rim; a lovingly hand-knitted sweater; a school committee flier; hurried grocery lists. This is all Nancy Rappaport had left to remember her mother, a woman defined by her absence.
In 1963, Nancy Rappaport’s mother died by suicide after a bitter public divorce and custody battle. Nancy was just four years old and the youngest of six children. Growing up in a blended family of eleven children after her father remarried, Nancy was bewildered about why her mother took her own life and left her behind.
Years later, encouraged by her own childrens’ curiosity about their grandmother, and fortified by her training as a child psychiatrist, Nancy began investigating her mother’s life and the mysteries surrounding her death.
Pursuing clues and following leads, Rappaport pieces together a complex mosaic of her mother. Drawing on court depositions, newspaper coverage, her mother’s unpublished novel, and interviews with family and friends, she uncovers the story of a conflicted and troubled activist, socialite, and community leader. She scrutinizes deep family secrets about a woman she only remembers in snapshots.
In Her Wake is a rare thing: the story of a psychiatrist analyzing her own psychological drama. Nancy Rappaport was just four years old when her mother--a prominent Boston activist and socialite--committed suicide. Decades later, Rappaport, a child psychiatrist with three children of her own, pieced together a complex mosaic of her "mama." In Her Wake sheds light on the nature of hurting and healing, and is a potent reminder that love outlasts death."

My Review:  Bravo Rappaport for tackling such a difficult subject and taking us through your journey.  It seems lately I have been reading a lot of memoirs and discovering it is genre I enjoy.  Rappaport does a great job blending her own discovery of dealing with her mother's suicide and educating the reader on depression.  I would have loved to have learned more about her mother as I am fascinated with the time period and high-society.  This book provides a great understanding of depression, which is a very real and very common disease.  It also walks through the different stages of grief for those suffering a loss of a loved one.   I found this book to be very insightful.  Good read!
I love the cover of the book too!  I often wish I grew up in the 50/60's. I love that time period. Yes, I love Mad Men!

I am honored to be part of the TLC Books Tour.  For more reviews of the book please click here.  To learn more about the author, Nancy Rappaport, please visit her site.

I received In Her Wake by Nancy Rappaport from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.

2 comments:

  1. Depression is a very real and very difficult disease to deal with. I'm glad to see that this book makes it a bit easier to understand.

    Thanks for being a part of the tour. I'm featuring your review on TLC's Facebook page today.

    ReplyDelete

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