Audiobook7 hours
Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home
Written by Jessica Berger Gross
Narrated by Jessica Berger Gross
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
About this audiobook
To outsiders, Jessica Berger Gross's childhood-growing up in a "nice" Jewish family in middle class Long Island-seemed as wholesomely American as any other. But behind closed doors, Jessica suffered years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father, whose mood would veer unexpectedly from loving to violent.
At the age of twenty-eight, still reeling from the trauma but emotionally dependent on her dysfunctional family, Jessica made the anguished decision to cut ties with them entirely. Years later, living in Maine with a loving husband and young son, having finally found happiness, Jessica is convinced the decision saved her life.
In her powerful memoir reminiscent of Jeannette Walls's bestseller The Glass Castle, Jessica breaks through common social taboos and bravely recounts the painful, self-defeating ways in which she internalized her abusive childhood, how she came to the monumental decision to break free from her family, and how she endured the difficult road that followed. Ultimately, by extracting herself from the damaging patterns and relationships of the past, Jessica has managed to carve an inspiring path to happiness-one she has created on her own terms. Her story, told here in a careful, unflinching, and forthright way, completely reframes how we think about family and the past.
At the age of twenty-eight, still reeling from the trauma but emotionally dependent on her dysfunctional family, Jessica made the anguished decision to cut ties with them entirely. Years later, living in Maine with a loving husband and young son, having finally found happiness, Jessica is convinced the decision saved her life.
In her powerful memoir reminiscent of Jeannette Walls's bestseller The Glass Castle, Jessica breaks through common social taboos and bravely recounts the painful, self-defeating ways in which she internalized her abusive childhood, how she came to the monumental decision to break free from her family, and how she endured the difficult road that followed. Ultimately, by extracting herself from the damaging patterns and relationships of the past, Jessica has managed to carve an inspiring path to happiness-one she has created on her own terms. Her story, told here in a careful, unflinching, and forthright way, completely reframes how we think about family and the past.
Author
Jessica Berger Gross
Jessica Berger Gross is the author of the bestselling book, Estranged, and the editor of the anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Salon, and The Globe and Mail. She lives with her family in Maine.
Related to Estranged
Related audiobooks
Saving Alex: When I was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emotional Incest Syndrome: What to do When a Parent's Love Rules Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trapped in the Mirror: Adult Children of Narcissists in their Struggle for Self Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See What You Made Me Do: The Dangers of Domestic Abuse That We Ignore, Explain Away, or Refuse to See Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Eye: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5House Rules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking on Eggshells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything I Never Dreamed: My Life Surviving and Standing Up to Domestic Violence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Have the Right To: A High School Survivor's Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crazy Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wild Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Home Is Burning: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Fight With Hospice: A Family Caring for Mom, Witness to the Misuse of Prescription Drugs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnother Kind of Madness: A Journey Through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Fractured Mind: My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cracked, Not Broken: Surviving and Thriving After a Suicide Attempt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is Fine: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South of Forgiveness: A True Story of Rape and Responsibility Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort & Community After Unthinkable Loss Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Herland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Estranged
Rating: 3.1666666833333337 out of 5 stars
3/5
6 ratings0 reviews