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Book Review of Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism

Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism


McGovern is a very sympathetic character and author and I wish I could rate this book higher. But it was difficult to dig through, even with a well-organized approach and decent writing. The daughter simply had a life torn apart by her addiction and no amount of attempts to praise her feeble efforts at recovery made it very gripping. Her death is grisly. I guess the part I liked (strange way to put it) the best is realizing how low a person can go carried on a wave of booze - regardless of what advantages they start with. Perhaps I would have liked the book better if I'd managed to like Terry better. It's a plea not to judge her, yet the way she lived her life made it quite difficult to appreciate how much she was loved and treasured. While the book may promote more understanding I just could not term it a good read, and am not sure it's not one of those subjects which could have been better approached as part of a group of stories or as part of a case study.