Susanna Sonnenberg's Mom Sounds Cool, Scary
Susanna Sonnenberg is not only the daughter of Ben Sonnenberg, the editor of the now defunct literary journal Grand Street but also the granddaughter of Ben Sonnenberg, a poor boy from Russia who came to New York and hit it big in the PR business. She follows her family's tradition of writing memoirs that revel in the craziness that was life in the House of the Sonnenbergs. Her father published Lost Property: Memoirs & Confessions of a Bad Boy in 1991. Now Baby Sonnenberg published her own Glory Of it Allian memoir, Her Last Death, about her mother. She says she changed names "to emphasize that this story could only be mine" which doesn't make any sense.
You know what does? Changing names to protect oneself from lawsuits! Today New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani goes all postal for it.
True, her parents sound horrendous (her mom espesh) but I do wish that, like hers, my mom had explained the difference between good coke and bad coke when I was 12. It would have saved me hundreds of dollars and a couple of freak-outs in college!
Also her dad did this: "When Susy was born, her father arrived at the hospital with a Victorian pram completely filled with lilies of the valley, so she would remember their scent forever."
Well, that doesn't sound so bad!
