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Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton
by: Linda Gray Sexton

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Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780316782074
ISBN: 0316782076
Label: Little Brown & Co (T)
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 307
Publication Date: 1994-10
Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T)
Studio: Little Brown & Co (T)
Sales Rank: 1282754

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
The poet's daughter recalls the dramatic mood swings, love affairs, and flagrant sexuality of her mother, as well as the intense and intimate relationship they shared despite the psychological problems that ended in her mother's suicide. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

Amazon.com Review:
An unsparing account of the anguish and fierce love between Linda Gray Sexton and her brilliant, unstable and ultimately self-destructive mother, Anne Sexton. Anne taught Linda how to write, how to see, how to imagine; and only Linda could have written a book that captures so vividly the intimate details and lingering emotions of their lives together. Searching for Mercy Street speaks to everyone who admires Anne Sexton and to every daughter or son who knows the pain of an imperfect childhood.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- I will never tire of reading about mothers and daughters
I will never tire of reading about mothers and daughters. When I was 10, my own mother had a breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In the years that followed, my father - a medical scientist with many connections - my mother, and many others in the family, wove a fascinating yet tortured life for my siblings and me. There was always something sinister behind the blatant reality of my mother's tragic intermittent psychosis. That something sinister was in part the times in which we lived, times not far removed from the times Sexton and Linda Gray Sexton lived.

I like to think we live in more enlightened times now, but am not sure of that perception.

Linda Gray Sexton's account of life with her mother was by turns refreshing, brutally honest, uplifting ... Read More

Rating:

- Go hug your mom after reading this
I read long ago the biography of Anne Sexton by Diane Middlebrook, and was very impressed by the tormented life of the poet. I also happened to read one of the novels written by her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton, "Points of Light", which I did not like all that much. So I had (I thought) an idea of who Linda was, both through the biography and her novel.

I was wrong. Searching for Mercy Street is truly what the subtitle claims: "A journey back to my mother". It gets so personal it is embarrassing at times. Linda goes into a lot of detail as to why she revealed things that you would never want anybody outside of your family to know, and it makes sense, and yet it doesn't. I have never read a better account of life with another person. It is not 100% chronological, but it is rich ... Read More

Rating:

- Honesty Can Be Pure Hell
"My mother died of depression. She took her life to end her pain." --Linda Gray Sexton

Living with Anne Sexton must have been like living in hell--and her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton, leaves absolutely nothing out of this book. She allows every dirty secret to emerge like a sort of bitterness filling the air.

Such as Anne's body lying on top of her-- "She's very heavy...I want to scream-get off, get off, get off!"--Linda Gray Sexton

Without Linda G. Sexton's honesty, "Mercy Street" would have been just another Mommy Dearest, but this was not. This book was about therapy, change, and forgiveness: this book was about new beginnings.

"Without knowing it, mother passes out to me her powers of observation. She shows me how to watch, how to see, how ... Read More

Rating:

- captivating, enthralling
I actually read this book while it was in production -- I was on the proofreading team for the publisher's typesetter -- and the entire team was enthralled by this book. Work is work, and usually we would would deal with the task at hand, but on breaks and over lunch, many of us working on this book would have mini-sessions about the author, her mother, the context of the relationship. We all felt very personally attached and protective of this book because we were working with the manuscript, which had handwritten notes between the author and her editor in the margins. It wasn't simply a narrative, we were keenly aware of the humanity behind the words. However, that awareness was truly heightened by the sensitive and thoughtful writing. Of course, my reading experience is unique to my situation, but ... Read More

Rating:

- "Mommie Dearest", deja vu
I have never been a great fan of Anne Sexton, the poet. But after reading the memoir written by her daughter, I doubt that I would cherish the words the poet wrung from the souls of her young.

To grow up in a household where genius resides is a terrible burden. I find it amazing that Sexton's daughters, especially Linda, survived at all. It is a book painted with a palette of despair, but never mean-spirited. It was, after all, a story begging to be told:"...I would bring her back to life, but to do so would require that I give up my life to her; to do so would require an act of cannibalism on her part, to reverse this process that every other mother and daughter engage in- the mother-daughter dance, birth and death..."

Linda Gray Sexton saves the most painful revelation until last, ... Read More

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