Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I thought this was a very well-done book. Is it a nuts & bolts look at the whys and hows of hoarding? No. A book with answers, a treatment guide, a self help manual for children of hoarders? No. It is, as advertised, a deeply personal memoir of the child of a troubled woman. A hoarder, mentally ill in several ways, and the daughter who is furious with her and ashamed of her, but who also loves her and struggles to let go of her impulses to care for this woman and her problems. I find it hard to read reviews of people berating the author for her sometimes callous treatment of a mother who has been a trial and a burden to her most of her life. Then others who feel she goes too far in enabling her and helping her. It's her MOTHER, people. I feel the author did a good, honest job if relating her personal struggles and fears and giving the reader a balanced picture of her life both as a child and an adult with a seriously mentally ill parent. This book read as somewhat unfinished. She would veer into topics that had nothing to do with her mother's hoarding and it got boring...and there were many references to her "writing a novel" or "I'm a writer" and it just seemed strange to read, even though this is a memoir. The parts about her mother, though, were fascinating, sad, and gripping. If she had made the book more about her mother, then it would have been better.
What do You think about Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother's Compulsive Hoarding (2010)?
Incredibly compelling story of hoarding and how it effects a whole family.
—matt
This book was well written, well researched, and interesting.
—Blair
Kind of an eye opener. I found it quite interesting.
—jasmin
