Dimensions
140 x 210 x 25mm
A beautiful, startling, and candid memoir about growing up without boundaries. Leve recalls with candor and sensitivity the turbulent upbringing she endured as the only child of an unstable, poet for a mother and a beloved but largely absent father. The consequences of a psychologically harrowing childhood are explored as she seeks refuge from the past and recovers what was lost. Ariel Leve grew up in Manhattan with an eccentric mother she describes as "a poet, an artist, a self-appointed troublemaker and attention seeker". Leve learned to become a parental figure, acquiescing to her mother's needs. There would be uncontrolled, impulsive rages followed with denial, disavowed responsibility, and then extreme outpourings of affection. How does a child learn to feel safe in this topsy-turvy world of conditional love? Leve captures the chaos and lasting impact of a child's life under siege and explores how the coping mechanisms she developed to survive later incapacitated her as an adult. There were material comforts, but no emotional safety, except for summer visits to her father's home in South East Asia-an escape that was terminated after he attempted to gain custody. A succession of caretakers raised Leve-relationships which resulted in intense attachment and loss. It was not until years later, when Leve could begin to emancipate herself from the past, that she could make sense of the turmoil. In telling her haunting story, Leve seeks to understand the effects of chronic psychological abuse on a child's developing brain, and recover and build a life for herself that she never dreamed possible: A life less abbreviated.
