Lies My Mother Never Told Me: A Memoir

by Kaylie Jones

Overview

In her riveting memoir Lies My Mother Never Told Me, Kaylie Jones—the daughter of author James Jones (From Here to Eternity) and an acclaimed author in her own right (A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries; Celeste Ascending; As Soon As It Rains)—tells the poignant story of her relationship with her famous father and her alcoholic mother, and of her own struggles with the disease. A true story of privilege, loss, self-discovery, and redemption, Lies My Mother Never Told Me is Jones’s unforgettable account of a not-quite-fairy-tale childhood and adulthood defined by two constants: literature and alcohol.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061778711
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/17/2010
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Kaylie Jones is the author of Celeste Ascending, As Soon as It Rains, and A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, which was made into a film starring Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Hershey.

Table of Contents

Part I

"I'm All Alone"

1 City of Lights 5

"You Ever Finish That Book You Were Writing?"

2 Fiction 24

"The Best Cocksucker in New York City"

3 Love 39

"Who Do You Think You Are, Frank Sinatra?"

4 Birth of a Student 54

"And for God's Sake Don't Fuck Frank Sinatra"

5 Birth of a Writer 71

"This Is Not the Chesa Grischuna"

6 The Black Hand of God 97

"Be Careful Where You Swim"

7 Powerlessness 116

Part II

"Votre file est tombée sur son dos"

8 The Brink 147

"What Money?"

9 Grace 170

What People are Saying About This

Colum McCann

“Unadorned, poignant and honest to the core, Kaylie Jones’ memoir is a light emerging from the shadows of a writing life.”

Editorial Reviews

A bright, fast-paced memoir with an inviting spirit. There is real immediacy to the family portraits here....There’s also great daughterly love for James Jones, as his daughter sometimes insists on referring to him, and palpable pride in his achievements. ” — Janet Maslin, New York Times

“Unadorned, poignant and honest to the core, Kaylie Jones’ memoir is a light emerging from the shadows of a writing life.” — Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin

“Searing, brutally honest....What makes Lies My Mother Never Told Me such an uplifting book despite all the pain and turmoil it recounts is its revelation of how Kaylie Jones has matured as a person in dealing with her twin legacies, literary and alcoholic, and also as a writer.” — Washington Times

“Brilliant, touching…. Absolutely addictive, this story of struggle and triumph is a joy to read, thanks to Jones’s gift for handling dark material with humor and grace…. a treasure for fans of literature and literary memoirs, as well as anyone who’s coped with alcoholics in the family.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

A bright, fast-paced memoir with an inviting spirit. There is real immediacy to the family portraits here....There’s also great daughterly love for James Jones, as his daughter sometimes insists on referring to him, and palpable pride in his achievements.

Janet Maslin

Searing, brutally honest....What makes Lies My Mother Never Told Me such an uplifting book despite all the pain and turmoil it recounts is its revelation of how Kaylie Jones has matured as a person in dealing with her twin legacies, literary and alcoholic, and also as a writer.

Washington Times

Unadorned, poignant and honest to the core, Kaylie Jones’ memoir is a light emerging from the shadows of a writing life.

Colum McCann

Starred Review.

Accomplished author Jones (A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries), daughter of famed literary figure James Jones, has spent most of her life avoiding the twin parental legacies of fame and alcoholism. In this brilliant, touching memoir, Jones faces both head-on. Jones explores her life, from her childhood in France, surrounded by the greatest literary minds of the age, to her troubled adulthood, seeking a way independent of the great minds that sired her. Looming throughout is Jones's larger-than-life mother-charming, caustic and alcoholic. As Jones wrestles with her own alcohol issues, coming out sober and strong, her relationship with her mother (long in denial) continues to deteriorate. Absolutely addictive, this story of struggle and triumph is a joy to read, thanks to Jones's gift for handling dark material with humor and grace. A rare child of privilege capable of looking on herself and her family objectively, Jones has produced a memoir will be a treasure for fans of literature and literary memoirs, as well as anyone who's coped with alcoholics in the family.
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Publishers Weekly

The daughter of celebrated novelist James Jones weighs in with a loving portrait of her father-and a savage one of her alcoholic, caustic mother. Jones, herself a novelist (Celeste Ascending, 2000, etc.), adopts a fairly routine chronology, beginning with her birth in 1960 and ending more or less in the present. Between chapters she places stories told by her mother-or about her-which reveal her as frank, eccentric, wacky, dyspeptic, unpredictable and cruel. As the memoir advances, so too do her mother's failures and cruelties. She forgot to pick up her daughter after school, she said hurtful things ("You're a whore, you know that?"), drank too much, lied, wasted money and acted outrageously toward all sorts of people, from literary celebrities to her own little granddaughter. Meanwhile, the author began to spiral downward, drinking heavily, sleeping with the wrong people, feeling insignificant and insecure and seeking psychological counsel. Perhaps in compensation, she continually quotes other people who told her that she's beautiful, talented and intelligent. Jones eventually married good guy Kevin and had a lovely daughter, Eyrna, whose verbal ability, we learn, is "literally off the chart for her age." In prose lathered with cliche and peppered liberally with evanescent epiphanies, the author seems to see God at one point, then takes up tae kwan do, progresses toward her black belt and becomes so proficient that even some rowdy teens on a Manhattan sidewalk step aside to let her pass. Jones denies the charge that she has enjoyed privileges because of her father, but the facts rendered here indicate that she has received substantial financial and professional advantages. There are afew intriguing tidbits about her father's social and professional circle-which included Norman Mailer, Irwin Shaw and Kurt Vonnegut-but most of the narrative is remarkable only for its rancor. Agent: Larry Kirshbaum/LJK Literary Management

Kirkus Reviews