Helpful Score: 10
I thought the book flowed well and was an easy read, not withstanding some of the serious subject matter. Several friends and I discussed prior to reading her book whether her incest statements against her father were accurate or just a ploy to sell the book. We seemed to be split in the middle. If she was honest in her memoirs, Mackenzie was brutally forthright and humble in her mistakes. She appears to be very forgiving of those who have wronged her in some manner or who have avoided her because of her lifestyle. It is a miracle she is still alive, and it is also sad that she continues to fight the demons that have cut her career short. I truly hope by reaching out to so many, that people can truly learn from her mistakes. I hope also that Mackenzie, for the rest of her days, continues to work hard as a parent and as a woman who needs sobriety to just stay alive.
Helpful Score: 7
It is quite astonishing that Phillips lived through such heavy drug abuse to write this shocking memoir. If some of her recollections are a bit hazy, it is not surprising. I am sure this was a difficult process, trying to explain how things got so messed up, especially with her father. Read it straight through. Plenty of famous names in this one, and some really disgusting references, but I was totally engrossed in the story.
Helpful Score: 4
I thought this book was very frank and open! I admire MP for her ability to even attempt this kind of thing! She is just as intelligent as her father and probably just as charismatic! I couldnt put it down and almost read it in one sitting!
Cant imagine living like that and thank god I was spared addiction in my life!
Cant imagine living like that and thank god I was spared addiction in my life!
Helpful Score: 3
Amazing candid book depicting Machenzie Phillip's life with her dad and her career. After all she did and went through, I am amazed she is still an intelligent women. I am happy she put this book out there for people to realize this type of thing happens more than we think. She is courageous in writing this book and revealing the truth.
Helpful Score: 3
After all the sensational hype that surrounded this book at the time of its release regarding the incest disclosure, I was surprised to find this to be an engaging, honest, well-written and decidedly UNSENSATIONAL account of Mackenzie's life as an addict. She comes across as likable, decent, strong and smart -- a true survivor. If you grew up in L.A. in the seventies, or loved the Mamas and the Papas or watched "One Day At a Time," the book will provide some some interesting backstory. But mostly it's an inspiring survivor's tale. I heard recently that Mackenzie Phillips is becoming a licensed drug counselor. I think she will make a very good one. This book is a testament to her honesty, ability to forgive and take responsibility for her choices. Those are good things to model to recovering addicts.
Helpful Score: 1
This was a quick and easy read but not what I expected. There was little personal emotion and more facts than needed. Not that the facts made any sense. i was out of sequence and she quickly moved from one time to another without flow. I love her and always have but was dissappointed with the book.
Interesting to read about Mackenzie Phillips. A good look into why she has had a drug problem all these years. I hope that she is able to put all her demons behind her to remain drug free. Fast read.
Mackenzie Phillips writes a cautionary tale as to the effect of fame and fortune (and an absentee father, and lots of drugs, and ) that some of todays young stars would do well to read (or, in the case of the audio book version I had, listen to narrated by the author, who actually lived it).
Hang out with Daddys rock friends, where parties and drugs were plentiful and easy to come by. Get a small part in what turned out to be a major film. Get a couple of more films, and a successful TV series. Lose yourself in drugs. Hang out with the wrong guys lose your job due to drug use, get busted need I continue? Or should I toss in the go out on tour with Dads rock band and sleep with the most really wrong guy you could portions?
Im not telling anything in the above summary that couldnt be obtained from a few back-issues of People magazine, and in much greater detail. That, in a nutshell, was my biggest disappointment Id already read virtually everything mentioned in the book by the time I actually got my copy. Well, that, and Miss Phillips is so intent on not glamorizing her life choices that I often found it hard to root for her, despite my wanting to. How can you write your memoirs and NOT be the most sympathetic character in them?? (OK, her son fills that role; there is a poetic justice in that choice.)
RATING: 3 ½ stars, rounded up to 4 stars. (Giving bonus points for the decision to have the author read her own works on the audio who better to tell the story?)
Hang out with Daddys rock friends, where parties and drugs were plentiful and easy to come by. Get a small part in what turned out to be a major film. Get a couple of more films, and a successful TV series. Lose yourself in drugs. Hang out with the wrong guys lose your job due to drug use, get busted need I continue? Or should I toss in the go out on tour with Dads rock band and sleep with the most really wrong guy you could portions?
Im not telling anything in the above summary that couldnt be obtained from a few back-issues of People magazine, and in much greater detail. That, in a nutshell, was my biggest disappointment Id already read virtually everything mentioned in the book by the time I actually got my copy. Well, that, and Miss Phillips is so intent on not glamorizing her life choices that I often found it hard to root for her, despite my wanting to. How can you write your memoirs and NOT be the most sympathetic character in them?? (OK, her son fills that role; there is a poetic justice in that choice.)
RATING: 3 ½ stars, rounded up to 4 stars. (Giving bonus points for the decision to have the author read her own works on the audio who better to tell the story?)
This is an interesting look into her life. It tells a lot about her life as she grew up.
I just finished this book with tears in my eyes and a big "Wow" in my head. Mackenzie Phillips life story is one of the bravest and most interesting memoirs I've ever had the honor to read. Truly inspiring, she is one amazing woman, there is no "poor, little pitiful me" anywhere in her book, it's told with such amazing candor that it almost leaves me speechless. I'm not sure how to word all this but I know I came away with a deeper understanding of addiction and even learned some things about myself while reading it. I felt her struggles and her pain as I have felt them myself, she put into words things that I cannot. For that I thank her for sharing her story in the hopes that it will help others who struggle with addiction and ghosts from their past. I HIGHLY recommend this memoir to everyone, even those not interested in addiction, I believe everyone could learn something from her story.
I watch Mackenzie Phillips on Celebrity Rehab and thought she was a very strong woman. Reading the book, I realized I was correct! She never had a childhood, like most Americans. I understand her love for her father, but wow, did he bring alot of people down with him. Imagine your father telling you, at 14 the only rules in the house is to stay home 1 night a week. Imagine being taught how to roll "joints" at age 9. The hell of addiction Mackenzie went through is horrifying. But she learned a new way of life, and I hope she is still sober today!
This book was a trainwreck and a half. I'm glad that at the moment she seems to have her life together, but, she was supposedly sober for a 15 year stretch before her "monster reemerged from it's slumber" last time... (I got this book on paperbackswap.com, by the way-- glad I didn't pay for it-- but, it was very nice of the previous owner to put little magazine clippings about the subject matter in the jacket of the book; when I pass it along to the next person on paperbackswap.com I'll leave them in there.)
With her messed up childhood, there's no way she could've turned out any other way-- up to a point. But, once she was older, she had so many chances to cut ties and NOT put herself in certain situations that at THOSE times I had trouble feeling any sympathy for her, more annoyance, as I'm sure most of her family did as well. You can blame the sins of the father being visited on the children up to a point, but when you get to be an adult, it's time to let go of the crutch of an excuse. When she was younger-- yes, absolutely her lousy father's fault, her lousy mother and stepmothers for not protecting her better than they had. I felt she let her mother off too easily in that-- and her father for constantly abandoning her. And when she was a child, I felt sorry for the little puppy who kept coming back, wishing for love only to be kicked aside again and again. But, when she became an adult, and a mother... well, it was a lot harder to sympathize, because she was PUTTING herself in these situations, KNOWING full well the outcome. And there was no shortage of people BEGGING her to get help, offering all the support in the universe, but she made the choices she made. I am not a judgmental person, but, I don't buy pathetic whining, either. Her father was toxic, as were most of the self-absorbed adults in her life, though, and I feel awfully for her for that...
I think that Chynna was the luckiest one of John Phillips' brood of five (Jeffrey, Laura-Mackenzie, Chynna, Tamerlane, and Bijou), because she had Michelle as a mother-- who DID protect her in the way she was unable to protect the others. However, I was intrigued by the sister/daughter relationship she had with Bijou, (and honestly adore Danny Masterson, to whom Bijou is now married, so I'm curious as to his take of her wild family, which obviously Mackenzie wouldn't know, so, it's not in the book).
Other than that, my impressions are that I wish she had better flow in her continuity. It isn't generally clear what happened when-- but that's not her fault; she honestly can't remember because of the haze that has been most of her life... That, and there's a few songs she sang on "So Weird" that I wish were on iTunes (reading the book reminded me of them).
With her messed up childhood, there's no way she could've turned out any other way-- up to a point. But, once she was older, she had so many chances to cut ties and NOT put herself in certain situations that at THOSE times I had trouble feeling any sympathy for her, more annoyance, as I'm sure most of her family did as well. You can blame the sins of the father being visited on the children up to a point, but when you get to be an adult, it's time to let go of the crutch of an excuse. When she was younger-- yes, absolutely her lousy father's fault, her lousy mother and stepmothers for not protecting her better than they had. I felt she let her mother off too easily in that-- and her father for constantly abandoning her. And when she was a child, I felt sorry for the little puppy who kept coming back, wishing for love only to be kicked aside again and again. But, when she became an adult, and a mother... well, it was a lot harder to sympathize, because she was PUTTING herself in these situations, KNOWING full well the outcome. And there was no shortage of people BEGGING her to get help, offering all the support in the universe, but she made the choices she made. I am not a judgmental person, but, I don't buy pathetic whining, either. Her father was toxic, as were most of the self-absorbed adults in her life, though, and I feel awfully for her for that...
I think that Chynna was the luckiest one of John Phillips' brood of five (Jeffrey, Laura-Mackenzie, Chynna, Tamerlane, and Bijou), because she had Michelle as a mother-- who DID protect her in the way she was unable to protect the others. However, I was intrigued by the sister/daughter relationship she had with Bijou, (and honestly adore Danny Masterson, to whom Bijou is now married, so I'm curious as to his take of her wild family, which obviously Mackenzie wouldn't know, so, it's not in the book).
Other than that, my impressions are that I wish she had better flow in her continuity. It isn't generally clear what happened when-- but that's not her fault; she honestly can't remember because of the haze that has been most of her life... That, and there's a few songs she sang on "So Weird" that I wish were on iTunes (reading the book reminded me of them).
