WASHINGTON TIMES
Sunday, September 27, 2009
LIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME
By Kaylie Jones
Morrow, $25.99, 372 pages, illus.
REVIEWED BY MARTIN RUBIN
All the time that I was spellbound reading this searing, brutally honest memoir, I kept thinking that Kaylie Jones was the perfect proof—and equally the perfect refutation—of that famous dictum by British poet Philip Larkin: “They [mess] you up, your Mum and Dad.”
Of course, as many readers will know from his published letters, that fine old four-letter word he used when he meant mess was one of his absolute top favorites. It was certainly a word that Ms. Jones heard a lot growing up from her famous father James Jones (of “From Here to Eternity Fame”) and her even more profane mother, actress Gloria Mossolino (a sometime stand-in for Marilyn Monroe), who probably gave Larkin a run for his money in using it as often as possible in a sentence. And also a word that Ms. Jones overused to a fault in her published debut to the point that it was positively off-putting even to those who do not mind profanity. It occurs throughout “Lies My Mother Told Me” as well, but always to good effect, whoever is saying it. . . .
For Martin’s full review, click here or visit www.washingtontimes.com.