The biography, Her Last Death: A Memoir by Susanna Sonnenberg, starts of with a phone call during the present, where Susanna receives a phone call as an adult, hearing that her mother is in a coma, and might not live. In the beginning of the story, Susanna gives a touch of her perspective, saying that naturally, a child would rush to their parent's side upon hearing the ghastly news. However for Susanna, this wasn't the case, but the exact opposite. She describes through this biography why she could not bring herself to fly across the country to her mother's hospital bed.
In the first third of the book I've read, it describes her life as a young child, up until she's a young teenager. She describes some very.. descriptive parts of her daily life. This probably isn't even a book that would be deemed appropriate for my age group. Susanna describes how she grew up around drugs, sex, and a general open mind about everyday life, as if everything was new instead of routine. She even tells readers in her biography that she was interested in adult magazines, and masturbated at a very young age on a daily basis. There was also a time in her life where she was sniffing cocaine and learned to shoot up her mother with drugs through a needle. There's more I could say, but I feel like I would be giving away what Sonnenberg's life was based upon in her early childhood years. Just reading this has kept me intrigued, and I still am! If Sonnenberg has written the truth, and nothing but the truth (with the exception of changing names other than her own), it's a wonder she hasn't become a druggie in her years as a young adult.
Quote:
" 'This is insane,' I wrote in my diary. 'It's insane that I'm used to cocaine and lovers and sex. I don't feel surprised when
she opens her bedroom door, just disgusted.' (Sonnenberg 78)"Reaction:
This is the scene after Susanna walks in on her mother Daphne, and one of her secret lovers Michael. I believe Sonnenberg's writing style really helps to portray her immediate feelings. She knows how to utilize her words and phrases well so that the readers can see the scenes through her eyes, not at a third person's perspective. This is one of the stronger phrases in the biography thus far, as it describes how she's gotten so used to all this negative influence around her that she's able to shrug it off, as if it isn't a big deal to make a fuss about. I'm a third of the way through Sonnenberg's biography, and I'm completely awestruck about how successful she's become after having that rough of a childhood.
