A Diary of Gastric Bypass Surgery: When the Benefits Outweigh the Costs Book

The my-family-was-crazy memoir ought to be a separate genre in itself -- there certainly are enough of them. "Rescuing Patty Hearst" is a pretty good example. The secret to Virginia Holman's success is that she keeps chapters simple and short, letting the reader (for the most part) pass judgment on her mother's actions. The end result is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a woman who created a nearly untenable childhood for this feisty author. Having grown up in the same era as Holman, I especially liked the way the 1970s became both a metaphor for her mother's insanity, and a possible reason for it. (Martha Mitchell was right about the secret government war -- why not Molly?) Maybe "Watergatesque" should join "Kafkaesque" as a byword for a government gone mad.