I had never heard of Lisa Crystal Carver before reading this book. But the quote from Boston Magazine on the cover got me. “The country’s supreme cultural anthropologist… Hunter S. Thompson in a miniskirt.”
I have never read a memoir or biography where I could not relate to the character before. But I could not relate to this lady. The book is really well written and I enjoyed the way it is put together. But I could not relate to her. (I am betting she is Mixed Polish from the NE. And I would double down on that that she is one of the NE/NE ones, where both her parents are from the NE.)
The title is great! Drugs are great! And she did not develop a drug problem. Which does set her apart from most. I have to commend her for that. It was nice to read a memoir of someone involved in the counter culture who does not fall off the rocker with drugs. So, I have to commend her there.
In the end, she has a child with a chromosomal deletion. Can you guess that she poisoned herself too much during pregnancy? I am guessing especially as the egg was fertilized. It is hard for me to read stuff like this nowadays because I see the cause and effects. And the domino effects.
Her son had sinus problems. Like really bad sinus problems where he had to have his ears drained of infection as a child. And then he ended up on mental health medication as a young child as well. His poor mental health is a result and effect of the infection in his ears and sinuses as a young child. When you have an on-going infection like that in your head, it effects your brain. And anything that effects your brain effects your vagus nerve. Thus, effecting your gut microbiome and immune system. Plus, she had him playing with a cat. Cats carry toxoplasmosis, which is linked to many mental health disorders. It is not said that this infection causes mental health diseases. But it is well known that if you treat the infection the mental health disorder/disease normally gets better.
I am glad this lady found a life she was content with. And I am glad she found an outlet for her creativity and writing. She writes really well. And I do feel bad about calling her out on being so dysfunctional. But that was kind of the theme of the book. She was trying to deal with her dysfunction. And I am not sure that it was a success. Because I think she is just passing the buck onto her child. Which is what most Moms do, right?
I like the idea of this book. I like the writing. I like the counter culture influence. Even though this is not apart of the counter culture I can relate to. I like that she got out of abusive relationships and did not loose herself to drugs. I like a lot of things about this lady’s story. But I do not like the way she is passing her dysfunction onto her child. And I hate how she says she is taking care of the medical needs of her child/son, when in actuality she is perpetuating his pain in order to get attention from medical professionals. Just like my mother did to me. So I suppose this book touched on a sensitive subject. I do not agree with Munchausen by Proxy. I cannot condone it. And I will not feel sorry for a mother with a child with medical conditions, when they are most likely the ones who created these conditions by design and on purpose.