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‘Today I’m Alice’ by Alice Jamieson
I read this book a while back now when it came out (2009) and found it just amazing. Being in the process of writing my own painful memoir, I read lots of other memoirs about mental health issues, and this one really sticks in my mind. I knew about how we can dissociate from traumatic events, losing the memory of the event thereafter (post traumatic stress) but I didn’t realise that multiple personalities could manifest themselves in a persons mind in this way.
This book perfectly explains how these personalities occur and where they come from, without being a boring text book style of writing. Alice’s story is amazing and it must have been very hard to retrace her memories to understand what all the confusion in her mind and life was about. It must have been a relief to her to have some answers, finally.
Some parts of this book were very hard to read, as we retrace her fathers terrible treatment of her and I applaud her courage to go through such events and write them down again and again. Some people might find it too much to read, but I would say that to read it is nothing to have experienced it, so go for it,Alicedeserves a vast audience.
I too have read this book and agree the author has written this amazing book in a very easy read format. Intersting, insightful and yes harrowing at times but I could not put it down. Her ability to enjoy and participate in life as an extremely intelligent and yes witty woman for such short periods of time is heartbreaking. To know that she will never have the life she deserved and the years of torment that have followed her into adulthood caused by sheer evil. She has still found a way to contribute to society and the understanding of the suffering and the silent that surrounds this still taboo subject. Very well written. I don’t have the ability to read these kinds of books as they are too disturbing for me but it is a testament to the author and her style and subtle humour that this is so compelling.