Jenna's Reviews > The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing

2.5 rounded down. I am having a major “AITA?” complex lately after reading so many popular memoirs that I just don’t end up liking very much. I am always saddened to hear of the terrible life events - usually mental health-related issues, including substance abuse disorder - that the authors had to endure, but no matter how awful these events are and how much I hate that people have to go through them, I can’t always connect with or appreciate the “product” of the memoir or the “relic” that the memoir represents.

I’ve been trying to figure out the root of this dissatisfaction and hope to share more later, but I wanted first to recommend Keri Blakinger’s Corrections In Ink, another (and I believe more literary and “redemption through reading and writing” oriented) substance use disorder and incarceration memoir that I found superior to The Many Lives of Mama Love.

I was surprised, reading this one, how much acclaim it’s gotten. After a stronger start, for me it became a bit too superficial with a lot of events glossed over or relayed in a sort of transactional way, not enough introspection or reflection (there were so many moments where I was like, “Oh, so we’re just gonna…move right along from that?… seems like a wasted opportunity….) and some name dropping that starts to seem self-aggrandizing, or is at least grating. (At one point, Oprah’s name is just endlessly repeated, in breathless sentences.)

I think addiction memoirs are ultimately always worth reading - it’s an important and misunderstood public health issue - so read the one that appeals to you. And maybe this one is a palatable entry-level one for some folks. It’s perfectly fine! But it’s a crowded field of memoirs out there, and in my opinion, there isn’t a whole lot of reflection, depth, analysis, or insight in this one to help a reader really understand the process of addiction and recovery and maintenance. It sorts of goes quickly and seamlessly in very Lifetime Movie fashion from some drug use snapshots to a brief prison stint, lots of court case sequences of events, and then triumph as signified by hanging out with the likes of Oprah and the Dalai Lama. There is some acknowledgment of personal privilege that impacted how things worked out for her, but there could be more. This was all just my impression. Maybe how much you appreciate this memoir has to do with what other related books and experiences you have to compare it with.

I also wanted to mention that I decided to read the Mama Love book after Crystal Hefner thanks the author and her literary agency at the end of Crystal’s recent memoir. In contrast to this one, though, I really liked Crystal’s memoir, and I recommend it!