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Title details for White Dresses by Mary Pflum Peterson - Available

White Dresses

A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters

by Mary Pflum Peterson
ebook
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An Emmy award–winning tv producer offers "a candid, moving memoir" about growing up with a mother battling mental illness (Kirkus Reviews).
As a journalist at Good Morning America, Mary Pflum Peterson's successful life was at odds with her childhood, where she watched her emotionally vulnerable mother, Anne, unravel before her eyes. But their love of white dresses always united them—from their baptism dresses to their wedding gowns, white dresses embodied hope and new beginnings.
After her mother's death, Mary dug deep to understand the events that led to Anne's breakdown. At twenty-one, Anne entered a convent, but lengthy periods of enforced fasting, isolation, and constant humiliation drove her to flee almost a decade later. Hoping to find new purpose as a wife and mother, she married, and was devastated when Mary's father revealed himself to be gay.
Anne retreated into chaos. By the time Mary was ten, their house was cluttered with broken appliances, stacks of mail, and teetering piles of assorted "treasures." In spite of everything, their bond endured. Through the white dresses, pivotal events in their lives were celebrated, marking the journey through loss and redemption as Mary tried to save Anne from herself.
"Brave and courageous." —Regina Calcaterra, New York Times bestselling author of Etched in Sand
"[Peterson's] prose is as elegant as the white dresses about which she so lovingly writes." —Dorothea Benton Frank, New York Times bestselling author of Queen Bee

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 21, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780062386984
      • File size: 555 KB

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780062386984
      • File size: 2138 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2015
      In a debut memoir, a former CNN reporter and current Emmy Award-winning Good Morning America producer recounts her family's painful history. Before Peterson was 10, both her parents had suffered mental breakdowns; her father, after two suicide attempts, finally confessed to his wife that he was gay. After the couple divorced, her mother plummeted into severe depression. For months, she was hospitalized, while her daughter expressed her own pain by reverting to bed-wetting. When her mother returned home, although as warm and loving as she always had been, her spirit seemed broken. Her weight ballooned, she no longer cared about her physical appearance, and, most alarming, she let the house become overrun with debris: newspapers, unopened mail, dirty dishes and clothing, dust and grime. When appliances broke, she failed to get them fixed. The kitchen, Peterson recalls, "began to take on the feel of a used appliance museum." For college, Peterson left her Wisconsin home for Manhattan and then moved to Atlanta, Germany, and Turkey on posts for CNN. Each time she returned, however, she saw her mother increasingly overwhelmed with trash, refusing Peterson's offer to help, to hire cleaners, or to find another place to live. Even her car was stuffed with garbage, and the house became infested with mice, chipmunks, bats, and insects. For years, the toilets did not work, causing an acrid stench. As the author's career took off and as she married and had children, her mother deteriorated, barring everyone from the house and denying that she was a hoarder. Peterson reminded her of their shared love of white dresses, "a way of starting over...a way of wiping the whole slate clean." But her mother was incapable of renewal, and she died trapped by depression, loneliness, and chaos. Peterson's generous homage to her mother offers an empathetic look at a baffling, frustrating mental illness. A candid, moving memoir about the many complexities of family.

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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