- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Plume; Reprint edition (May 28 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0452278228
- ISBN-13: 978-0452278226
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.5 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#419,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #80 in Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Suicide
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In 1988, Gloria Vanderbilt's 23-year-old son Carter committed suicide. As Vanderbilt looked on, Carter swung away from the terrace wall of her 14th-floor New York apartment and, in Vanderbilt's words, "He let go." In this poignant memoir, Vanderbilt reflects on her own painful history and what she describes as "the final loss, the fatal loss that stripped me bare." She thought, she says, that she could not survive the death of her son. This memoir is a testimony to her courage and her own return to life.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
In 1988, the author's 23-year-old son, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper--Princeton graduate, editor at American Heritage, outwardly confident and in control of his life--committed suicide, falling from the terrace of her Manhattan apartment as she watched helplessly. This luminous, wise, healing and deeply moving memoir opens with Vanderbilt's flashbacks to other personal losses, including abandonment by her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, who left for Paris in 1925, dumping her at the age of one year on her maternal grandmother and an Irish nurse; the death of her father, Reginald, three months later; and the death of her actor/screenwriter husband, Wyatt Cooper, in 1978 after he suffered several heart attacks. Some of these traumas were covered in her 1985 autobiography, Once Upon a Time, and the self-conscious narrative is padded with diary excerpts from 1971. But when Vanderbilt finally recalls her son's death--which she believes was the result of a psychotic episode induced by a prescription allergy drug, Proventil--the writing shines, communicating her almost unbearable pain and sorrow with shattering intensity.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
"No one would ever be a stranger to me again.",
By
This review is from: A Mother's Story (Hardcover)
Gloria Vanderbilt describes herself as living from earliest childhood in an "unbreakable glass bubble," a sense of being isolated from people because she was unlovable and unworthy, unable to feel deep emotions. Though she knew happiness for the first time with her fourth husband Wyatt Cooper and her sons, she still felt tinges of being cut off from reality. Her husband's death started to crack the unbreakable bubble surrounding her soul, and it shattered completely and forever when she witnessed her son Carter commit suicide, when he was 23.She then was able to feel the deepest pain and guilt, and to acknowledge the boundless joy he had brought to her. She writes in a disjointed manner, flashing back and forth with journal entries and short reflections about events in her life leading up to Carter's death, which she describes in acute detail. Her musings are written to herself and to Carter, except for one chapter in which she reaches out to readers who are dealing with loss; she never imagined she could survive after her son's death, but she did, and given enough time, others will, too. This little book is short enough, and compelling enough, to read in one sitting. Her reflections are deeply personal, and yet universally understood.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mother's Story,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mothers Story (Paperback)
This book is an unexpected jewel that was given to me by a friend during a time in my life where I was struggling with myself and my path in life. Everyone can associate with the events and emotions conveyed in this touching account of a mother losing her son. Honest, personal, and moving, the author invites us into a sacred place and shares her tragedy with the world with loving care. At times I felt embarassed, as if I were trespassing into a private and personal memory. It is more than a book about loss and heart ache, it is a book about life.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely one of the most touching books I've read,
By blergy (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Mother's Story (Hardcover)
Anyone who does not cry upon reading this book cannot possibly have a beating heart. Ms. Vanderbilt's account of her son's life (and death) is honest and heartfelt. In reading about the love she has for her family, one grows to love them along with her, and ultimately feels a measure of her pain with her narration of the loss of her husband, Wyatt Cooper, and later of her son Carter's suicide. At one time or another, all of us have felt isolation from our loved ones, an inability to allow them to touch our lives for whatever reasons. We employ many different mechanisms to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world, whether we are conscious of it or not. Gloria Vanderbilt's "glass bubble" imagery certainly gives voice to those feelings, and the way she escapes from the bubble is simultaneously (yet paradoxically) heartbreaking and inspiring. One's own "glass bubble" becomes weaker when reading about the great losses in her life- losses that are uniquely tragic, yet echo the experiences of anyone who's ever lost a loved one. This book, in addition to Ms. Vanderbilt's recollections of Carter's life and death, includes diary entries describing the innocence and love surrounding Carter Cooper's early life as well as contributions from close friends and from his younger brother, Anderson. The book indirectly assumes a rudimentary prior knowledge of Gloria Vanderbilt's life; reading _Once Upon a Time_, her autobiography, before this book will provide a great deal of necessary background. _A Mother's Story_, although it is painfully personal, is a clear picture of the common emotions- love, grief, and empathy- that bind the human race together.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Specific Groups > Special Needs
- Books > Health, Mind & Body > Death & Grief > Suicide
- Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Suicide
- Books > Nonfiction > Current Events > Poverty > Social Services & Welfare
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
