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Mermaid: A Memoir Of Resilience (2014)

by Eileen Cronin(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0393089010 (ISBN13: 9780393089011)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

W. W. Norton & Company

review 1: This was a very quick memoir to read. Most memoirs I've read tend to have a dysfunctional family and this was no exception. I have to admit, I started reading this book because it is about a family in my hometown, not just Cincinnati but walking distance from where I grew up. The family name, Cronin, is familiar to me and I know the street I am pretty sure they lived on. Eileen is one of 11 children born into a large Catholic family. I loved all the references to St. Vivian (my grade school) and the scary overpass over Winton Rd, P&G, Graeters, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Ursuline Academy & St. X. She even mentions the Keating Family & Al Schottelkotte (news anchor) from my neighborhood which I where I think she lived. My best guess is that Eileen is about 10... more years older than me so we were not at St. Vivian at the same time. But this memoir is more than just familiarities. Eileen was born with no legs believed to be the result of her mother taking the drug Thalidomide while pregnant. It is an interesting look into her life and how she dealt with her disability, her loud boisterous family, bullying, her mother's mental illness (at a time when mental illness was talked about even less than now), a sibling's death & her own alcohol abuse. Through it all, Eileen overcame many obstacles to discover her own self worth & independence. Probably closer to 4 stars. Worth reading, especially if you grew up in Finneytown in the 60's or 70's!
review 2: I had a hard time putting this book down. The author does a great job mixing humor, conflict, sadness, loss, rivalry, and abandonment into a very interesting story. At the core was her experience as a child with a serious birth defect. I have to admit that I wondered at her difficulty with all of her relationships (one sympathizes with her family as they cope with her insecurities), but it's hard to know how one would be growing up so physically different from one's peers. I greatly admire her fearlessness in many areas of life! I was sad to read about how badly she wanted her father to say "I love you", when he writes her a letter expressing his love. Yet because he included her brothers and sisters in the expression of love, she was overwhelmingly disappointed. I did not grow up in a large family, so that may be why I didn't understand. There is a lot of tension between the author and her mother over her mother's possible use of thalidomide, a drug tied to serious birth defects. This tension forced her to distance herself from her mother and most of her siblings for many years. Ultimately, though, this is a book about resilience (title!) and is a wonderful read. less

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