Coming Clean Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DQVDTH6 | Format: EPUB
Coming Clean Description
Kim Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a tidy apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. You would never guess that Kim grew up behind the closed doors of her family's idyllic Long Island house, navigating between teetering stacks of aging newspapers, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room - the product of her father's painful and unending struggle with hoarding. In this moving coming-of-age story, Kim brings to life her rat-infested home, her childhood consumed by concealing her father's shameful secret from friends, and the emotional burden that ultimately led to an attempt to take her own life. And in beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents that has thrived in spite of the odds.
Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where we come from and the relationships that define us - and about finding peace in the homes we make for ourselves.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 5 hours and 55 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: July 23, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DQVDTH6
Growing up as the child of severe hoarders, the author of
Coming Clean: A Memoir describes in great detail what that was like for her.
In her narrative voice that felt like a conversation, she revealed how her home was not just an embarrassment that she had to keep secret, but that sometimes the house was festering with the detritus of the clutter until pipes burst, mold grew, rats proliferated throughout, and at one time, a homeless person was living in their attic, unbeknownst to them.
One side effect for the author was how socially isolated she was....and I felt such compassion as I read about how she found a way to role play the kind of person she wanted to be through acting, and even by emulating those whose behavior she wanted to incorporate into her own.
Health problems made it imperative for long term changes in the living conditions, but after cleaning up repeatedly over the years, moving her parents to new places, and even hiring people to clean....none of these actions solved the problem permanently. At that point, Miller began researching the condition of hoarding and learned a lot about the childhoods of those with the condition.
Now a successful writer and actress living in Manhattan, Miller describes honestly and with great understanding of herself and her parents the small changes that have occurred over the years...perhaps because she finally detached. She was also able to create her own nest and develop a relationship that was satisfying for her. One point she emphasized: no matter how frustrated and angry she occasionally got with her parents, she always loved them and knew that they loved her. In many ways, the bond between them grew despite the horrific events of their lives together. Five stars.
TOP 1000 REVIEWER VINE VOICE
Kimberly Miller's dad keeps piles and piles and piles of receipts, lists, articles, magazines... and any and everything else. Their house is so full of wet, rotting junk that the kitchen and bathrooms are unusable. The three of them can't even be together in the same room there is so much garbage piled in the house. This house of garbage controls Kim's life so thoroughly that she can not escape always feeling that she is nothing more than "the girl who lives in garbage."
Kimberly studies people, she want to emulate a self-assured, easy going school girl. But every day she returns to the rat infested, mildewed house reminding her of who she really is.
Her chance to escape this life comes through a full ride scholarship to Syracuse, her dream college is Emerson. Emerson offers no scholarship and yet, "As a little girl, I used to lie in bed, thinking, 'maybe if I endure all my pain now, I could be happy when I am older. Emerson felt like my reward for the years of shame I'd logged." Her first year at Emerson is that dream come true.
This is Kim's story of always remembering where she's from and always remembering to "not settle."
The love she has for her parents is abundant and yet there is complete frustration, embarrassment, shame, and anger for them as well.
This reminded me of Liz Murray's Breaking Night and of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
By Terri J. Rice
TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE
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