Lies My Mother Never Told Me

For those of us who love books and fancy ourselves writers, the romantic lives of legendary authors—think Hemingway in Spain or Fitzgerald in Hollywood, even Thomas and Mailer at the White Horse Tavern—offer a glimpse of the exotic that leaves us a little green, much like Frank and April Wheeler, the doomed husband and wife of the brilliant Revolutionary Road. To live a life of books and ideas, to debate, argue, and meditate with like-minded souls across a table littered with dirtied plates and bottles of wine. . . . A literati dream.

But what if that dream came with a dark lining—unchecked emotional outbursts, severe headaches, liver damage, blackouts?

In her engaging memoir, Kaylie Jones speaks directly to this question. The daughter of James Jones, one of the most acclaimed American writers of the mid-twentieth century, Kaylie grew up surrounded by the royalty of belles lettres. Private schools, exotic vacations, a comfortable, book-lined home in Paris were all hers—and more. Hers was a lifetime saturated by literature—and booze. Alcohol would impact her father’s health and help him to an early grave. It would also mark her relationship with her mother—one of the few bonds they shared until Kaylie went dry. (And like her mother a wonderful raconteur, Kaylie knows how to tell a good story.)

Refreshingly matter-of-fact, free from any sense of entitlement, and grounded by humor and intelligence, Lies My Mother Never Told Me tells of the events of Kaylie's life from childhood to today. Hers is a memoir of family and literature, of the people, events, and books that shaped her. While she writes of celebrities, the luminaries who grace her pages come off as flesh-and-blood people—flawed, charming, despicable, and generous human beings who walk the earth among the rest of us. Losing her father at sixteen, Kaylie recalls how she turned to books—especially his works—to find him. Though it took years and a number of painful steps, she eventually moved out of the shadow of her family's fame and claimed a rightful place of her own as a woman, a wife, a mother, and a writer.

I had been looking forward to reading this manuscript when it was first presented at the Fall 2009 launch, and when I finally picked it up to work on it, I was mesmerized. I inhaled this book and couldn't stop talking or thinking about it. Kaylie's is a singular, fascinating life. But the strength of her story is its universality. Her experiences are completely relatable to someone like me who grew up in a far different reality.

Anyone who loves books, literature, and the (notion of) the writing life, will find much to enjoy and ponder in this terrific new memoir. As will those who have grown up with, lived with, or been an alcoholic or addict of any kind. And did I say it's got funny stories too? My fingers are crossed that it will be a sleeper hit, attaining the success it so rightly deserves.