Probably one of the most difficult memoirs to write is one in which the writer grows up with alcoholic/ abusive parents without sounding maudlin or lurid. Jeannette Wells has succeeded in writing a readable story of her childhood without doing either. Having been married to an abusive alcoholic for 18 years and trying to protect myself and my children from his rages, I "feel her pain." I only hope that she has been able to divest herself of the resentment and bitterness that results from this type of childhood. She certainly deserves a good life now!