Never Simple

Never Simple

by Liz Scheier
Never Simple

Never Simple

by Liz Scheier

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Never Simple reminded me why I love memoirs. I couldn’t stop turning the pages as Liz Scheier unraveled the type of family mystery I’d expect in a movie (and I would definitely watch a movie adaptation of this, especially with the actress Scheier mentions in the book—I won’t spoil it for you).

This gripping and darkly funny memoir “is a testament to the undeniable, indestructible love between a mother and a daughter” (Isaac Mizrahi).

Liz Scheier’s mother was a news junkie, a hilarious storyteller, a fast-talking charmer you couldn’t look away from, a single mother whose devotion crossed the line into obsession, and—when in the grips of the mental illness that plagued her—a masterful liar. On an otherwise uneventful afternoon when Scheier was eighteen, her mother sauntered into the room and dropped two bombshells. First, that she had been married for most of the previous two decades to a man Liz had never heard of and, second, that the man she had claimed was Liz’s dead father was entirely fictional. She’d made him up—his name, the stories, everything.

Those big lies were the start, but not the end; it had taken dozens of smaller lies to support them, and by the time she was done she had built a fairy-tale, half-true life for the two of them. Judith Scheier’s charm was more than matched by her eccentricity, and Liz had always known there was something wrong in their home. After all, other mothers didn’t raise a child single-handedly with no visible source of income, or hide their children behind fake Social Security numbers, or host giant parties in a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment only to throw raging tantrums when the door closed behind the guests.

Now, decades later, armed with clues to her father’s identity—and as her mother’s worsening dementia reveals truths she never intended to share—Liz attempts to uncover the real answers to the mysteries underpinning her childhood. Trying to construct a “normal” life out of decidedly abnormal roots, she navigates her own circuitous path to adulthood: a bizarre breakup, an unexpected romance, and the birth of her son and daughter. Along the way, Liz wrestles with questions of what we owe our parents even when they fail us, and of how to share her mother’s hilarity, limitless love, and creativity with children—without passing down the trauma of her mental illness. Never Simple is the story of enduring the legacy of a hard-to-love parent with compassion, humor, and, ultimately, self-preservation.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781250823120
Publisher: Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 03/01/2022
Sold by: Macmillan
Format: eBook
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 614,432
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Liz Scheier is a former Penguin Random House editor who worked in publishing and content development for many years, including at Barnes&Noble and Amazon. She writes book reviews and feature articles for Publishers Weekly. She is now a product developer living in Washington, D.C., with her husband, two small children, and an ill-behaved cat. Never Simple is her first book.
Liz Scheier is a former Penguin Random House editor who worked in publishing and content development for many years, including at Barnes&Noble.com and Amazon. She writes book reviews and feature articles for Publishers Weekly. She is now a product developer living in Washington, D.C., with her husband, two small children, and an ill-behaved cat. Never Simple is her first book.

Table of Contents

Preface: Liars xiii

1 The Man Who Wasn't There 1

2 Yorkville on My Mind 6

3 The Kids Are Alright 19

4 That's Mow the Light Gets In 40

5 Launched 56

6 Selling for Scrap 79

7 Breaking It Off 90

8 Switching Teams 114

9 Father Figure 128

10 Hitched 149

11 That's Why They Call It Labor 158

12 A Room Full of Men 179

13 The Apple and the Tree 186

14 Gimme Shelter 210

15 Detritus 217

16 Mermaid Manor 229

17 Checking In 233

18 I Lift Up My Eyes 247

Acknowledgments 269

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