Helpful Score: 2
This is one of my all time favorite books! I have read it many times. Nancy Spungen was a profoundly disturbed child who got NO help at all from the medical community. I'm not sure if was the times (she was born in 1958) or what but my heart abolutely breaks for this family and what they endured with her. As a child she tried to stab a sitter with scissors and attacked her mother with a hammer. Doctor's response? Just a phase, normal, etc. Absolutely NUTS!! Many years later Mrs. Spungen saw a doctors report that mentioned the possiblity of schizophrenia but this same doctor did not share his thoughts with the Spungens and in fact quit seeing her after that. Once again, not sure if it was the times but it appeared that doctors just kept passing her off to be rid of her as they really didn't know what was wrong or what to do with her. She was born cyanotic (cord wrapped around her neck)and try as she might, Mrs. Spungen could not get any doctor to consider that maybe this had something to do with her problems. Evidently now days doctors do think there is a connection between traumatic births and emotional problems in children and parents get the support and follow up needed. To late for Nancy as she was stabbed to death by Sid Vicious of Sex Pistols fame at the age of 20. Absolutley tragic.
Helpful Score: 1
Deborah Spungen recounts the sad life of her daughter Nancy, whose troubles began as a toddler and whose recklessness and self-destructive tendencies led her to become a drug addict by her teenage years. Ms. Spungen describes the shame and frustration of watching her daughter's life spiral further and further out of control. Despite her mother's best efforts, Nancy eventually tore the family apart, and the Spungens only achieved some measure of peace after her death at the hands of the infamous Sid Vicious.
For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family. "Honest and moving...Her painful tale is engrossing."
For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents' marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family. "Honest and moving...Her painful tale is engrossing."
Helpful Score: 1
As well written and deeply moving as it is profoundly disturbing, this book gives a glimpse behind the perhaps necessarily one dimensional portraits painted in the media, and illuminates the deeply flawed health system that failed Nancy Spungen.
