PJaze [Download ebook] Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir Online [PJaze.ebook] Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir Pdf Free Ivana Lowell audiobook | *ebooks | Download PDF | ePub | DOC Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #317783 in Books 2011-11-01 2011-11-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 7.95 x .65 x 5.14l, .65 #File Name: 0307387402320 pages | File size: 36.Mb Ivana Lowell : Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Why Not Say What Happened?: A Memoir: 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. The Guinness Curse, as by Lady Caroline...if you're interestedBy DalJOn an offhand remark about this book in an unrelated article, I happened on this memoir and remarkable story arc of the Guinness Girls...and ended up reading four books, numerous articles and interviews regarding the Guinness heirs, in particular Lady Caroline (nee Caroline Blackwood)...it was entrancing in the way you can't not look at a train wreck and all its wreckage, absorbing in how money and entitlement corrupts, affecting all who come in contact, no matter how peripheral it might be. Ivana, the author and also the daughter of Lady Caroline, writes in a compelling manner, balancing her obvious love for her mother and her mother's dysfunctional love for her children, while still exposing the degradations and almost criminal neglect that Ivana and her siblings suffered at the hands of her mother and her various husbands...while Ivana treats her mother with a definite feeling of affection, her voice remains truthful and non apologetic about the reality of the benign neglect and acidic personality that her mother was famous for, hence the title of this memoir. Written in a conversational manner, details emerging in a non linear manner, we get insight into the entitled world of the old English aristocracy, showing its insular nature and the rotten core that is the bane of its reality. Ivana shows both the inherent problems of entitlement and her own recognition of the need to move on and become one with the real world and how best to survive the Guinness Curse. If you enjoy the book, then Lady Caroline's biography "Dangerous Muse..." might be worthwhile as a follow up reading. To me at least, learning of the Lady Caroline story arc in reverse gave an almost insider's understanding that I enjoyed, well worth the time and expense of the Kindle editions...dj3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating Story Written with a Post Psychotherapy DetachmentBy Ann SeymourIvana Lowell has backbone; how otherwise coulod she have survived? Her horriffic expenience of suffering third degree burns over seventy percent of her body should not happen to any six year old. In her memoir, "For All I Found There," Lowell's mother, Lady Caroline Blackburn, writes excruciatingly about her daughter's rehabilitation in the burn unit. Lowell says very little in "Why Not Say What Happened?"From the burns, we progress to the ubiquitous molestation, a disastrous first marriage, and substance abuse issues. Some of Lowell's liveliest prose is in her descriptions of rehab units. She's also charmingly funny when she describes her grandmother Maureen.One senses Lowell is manipulated quite a bit; for example, when, as an adult, she went to work for Harvey Weinstein, he was the lover of her stepfather, Robert Lowell. The story here is a page turner, yet some have criticized her writing style, easpecially in the London journals. There's a detachment in her voice, brought about, perhaps, by so many years of psychotherapy. It may to her seem like someone else's life. - Ann Seymour, author of "I've Always Loved You"0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Just sadBy JoI don't know which makes me the saddest. Her life story ( total pity party) or the fact that I made myself finish the book. Born into one of the most celebrated Anglo-Irish families, the Guinnesses, Ivana Lowell grew up at the whim of two literary heavyweightsmdash;her mother, writer Lady Caroline Blackwood, and stepfather, poet Robert Lowell. Now, with an incisive eye and a wicked sense of humor, she shares the stories wersquo;ve always wanted to hear. She tells of following the famous authors from one crumbling, drafty country house to another, and of summers spent with madcap relatives such as her maternal grandmother, the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, and her ldquo;old friend,rdquo; the Queen Mother. But Ivana also has darker stories to tell: about her childhood accident, about her own stints in rehab, and, finally, about discovering the secret Lady Caroline had successfully kept from Ivana her entire life. From Publishers WeeklyNamed after a line from a poem by Robert Lowell, her mother's third husband and an important stabilizing presence in her early life, this self-searching, poor-little-rich-girl story is, in ways, a search for a father. Alcoholism ran through Ivana Lowell's family, the descendants of the Guinness beer fortune; her fabulous grandmother, Maureen, married royalty, and cultivated "talented snobs," while her mother, novelist Lady Caroline Blackwood, who had grown up in northern Ireland, crossed into bohemia by first marrying Lucian Freud, then composer Israel Citkowitz. Moving between New York's Greenwich Village and London, her mother also had affairs with English screenwriter Ivan Moffat and New York of Books editor Robert Silvers, so it was never clear who was the author's father.After her mother's marriage to Robert Lowell, the family lived in a rustic house in Kent; there, the author was sexually molested by a caretaker. Lowell embarked on her own destructive drinking while at various boarding schools, attended drama school, and ended up in New York working for Harvey and Bob Weinstein's Miramax. In alternate chapters she chronicles her extensive rehab over the years, her voice stripped of all vanity and self-pity, revealing a near palpable relief in baring the unlovely details. (Nov.) (c) Copyright copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From BooklistPrompted by the death of her mothermdash;author, Guinness heiress, and artsy bohemian hostess Lady Caroline Blackwoodmdash;and the discovery that her mother lied to her about the identity of her real father, 30-year-old Ivana Lowell, poet Robert Lowellrsquo;s stepdaughter, sets out to rattle more than a few skeletons in her distinguished familyrsquo;s closet. The resulting memoir serves as a type of damage control for a daughter of privilege and pain, who spent years coping with depression via alcohol (the family problem) and pills. Proving that catharsis is good for the soul, she incorporates her therapy sessions into this no-holds-barred glimpse into the unconventional lifestyle and family dysfunction that typified her upbringing. Rather than sounding bitter, Lowellrsquo;s tone is beseeching as she takes mental inventory of a personal history that is as fascinating as it is twisted and troubling. More than just another poor-little-rich-girl memoir, Lowellrsquo;s account refrains from painting herself as the victim as she asks and answers some tough questions. --Margaret Flanagan ldquo;A frank and, at times, comic account of growing up amid extreme privilege and eccentric personalities.rdquo; mdash;Vanity Fairnbsp;nbsp;ldquo;A riveting history of a family that folds in on itself, consuming generation after generation. Lowellrsquo;s compact, finely tuned paragraphs render the saga with brave urgency and courage.rdquo; mdash;Ellenbsp;nbsp;ldquo;Lowell movingly shows how a childrsquo;s love can transcend a parentrsquo;s flaws. Her empathy with her mother may be her greatest gift.rdquo; mdash;The New York Times Book nbsp;ldquo;For a woman whose legacy carries an enormous fortune, a family tree cluttered with renown, and unparalleled eccentricity, Ivana Lowell is shockingly all right. .nbsp;An impeccable memoir.rdquo; mdash;The Daily Beast ldquo;Ivana Lowellrsquo;s memoir is a heart-breaking account of a gifted woman, her brilliant but destructive parents, and a glamorous, aristocratic life that was laced with arsenic. That she survived and now shines as literary force in her own right is apparent from the very first page. Why Not Say What Happened? is a tour de force.rdquo; mdash;Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshirenbsp;ldquo;Compelling. Careless hardly covers the reckless disregard with which these people treated those they supposedly loved.rdquo; mdash;The Boston Globe nbsp;ldquo;Lowell takes her spot in the pantheon of modern-day heiresses with this memoir about her unbelievable life.rdquo; mdash;More nbsp;ldquo;Will no doubt raise eyebrows. Lowell spares few details in recounting her dysfunctional childhood, which was spent in grand houses and fancy apartments, where the family lived more like hillbillies than titled Brits.rdquo; mdash;W nbsp;ldquo;Lowellrsquo;s true achievement may lie in the unassuming way she communicates the resilience of a woman whose trialsmdash;she was sexually abused at six by her nannyrsquo;s husband, was severely burned in a childhood kitchen accident and has struggled for decades to conquer alcoholismmdash;might have done in most people.rdquo;nbsp; mdash;The New York Times nbsp;ldquo;An exhilarating roller-coaster ride of a book, full of the sort of wonderfully terrible secrets writers seldom have the guts to tell, let alone with such an assured and beguiling candormdash;but then of course, Ivanarsquo;s Irish and a born writer