The Center of the Universe: A Memoir

by Nancy Bachrach

Book Overview

The story is so improbable, it can only be true: A brilliant woman with a long history of mental illness--who once proclaimed herself to be the center of the universe -- is miraculously cured by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning aboard the family boat. Nancy Bachrach warns readers, "Don't try this at home" in her darkly humorous memoir about "the second coming" of her mother -- the indomitable Lola, whose buried family secrets had been driving...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307455416
• ISBN13: 9780307455413
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Buy it for Mom

This mom-moir will grab you and not let go. It is both insanely funny and yet, because it is true, utterly insane. You get a wild ride and wildly likeable characters... a real requirement for me to enjoy a book. Based on real events in Jewish history, pleasure boating and antiperspirant advertising (I doubt you will hear those three in a coherent sentence anywhere else), you will find laugh-out-loud enjoyment, fascination, sharp observation and wit that can kill. Have a great read. Buy it for Mom. She will feel loved and sane.

Every word is a gem

Nancy Bachrach is a fabulous storyteller, and she has a dramatic, harrowing, hilarious story to tell. But unlike most authors these days, Nancy does not waste a single word. She strings her thoughts together like a diamond setter places stones in settings...carefully, meticulously and magically. From the moment she gets a phonecall telling her that her father has died in a boating accident and her mother is in a comma (typo made on her chart by someone in a tiny rural hospital) Nancy leads the reader through her family saga with wit, compassion and a clarity of thinking that left me awestruck. Many of us have crazy families. But how many of us could live with our families, observe their madness and motives, analyze them with sensitivity and intelligence, and then tell their stories in a way that makes this book impossible to put down? This was without a doubt one of the best memoirs I have ever read. People will fall in love with Lola, Nancy's mother, who sports a "red beehive that turns into cotton candy or the hair of a troll doll" after a ride in a convertible with the top down. This whole book is like a wild ride in a convertible -- thrilling, full of life, scary, dangerous and life affirming. After one particularly harrowing curve in the road, the author states that she has been "dealt a new hand and I have no idea what will turn out to be wild." The same could be said for anyone who picks up this wonderful book, fastens their seat belts and enjoys the wild ride. Nothing in life is predictable. Thank goodness this author shows great judgment when she holds our hand and takes us on her wild ride.

Hysterically funny!

An ironic, hysterically funny account of life with a crazy mother, an inept father and ancestors including a chief rabbi who went to jail for selling kosher wine during Prohibition. Nancy Bachrach's memoir revolves around her father's death from carbon monoxide poisoning and her mother emerging from a coma with severe brain damage. But the real story is how Bachrach and her siblings heal from years of neglect and abuse while helping their mother fight an agonizing battle to regain her mind and rebuild her life. This story carries you to the end with laugh out loud scenes, pages of brilliant wit and a wonderment at how it will all turn out. It's really terrific and needs to be read and enjoyed.

An Incredible Story

The incredible story of a family overcoming a tragic accident that kills their father and leaves their mother in a coma. A multi-generational tale of insanity and genius told with dark humor and a true sense of how absurd life can be. Bachrach is a fantastic writer whose memoir reads like a funny beach book, but then leaves you emotionally satisfied and grateful that she had the courage to share this unique journey with us.

Darkly Hilarious

I can't remember laughing and crying my way through a truly tragic mother/daughter memoir the likes of Nancy Bachrach's amazing "The Center of the Universe." This rarest of delicious summer reads is all the more touching for Ms. Bachrach's brilliant comedic timing of a latter-day Dorothy Parker. I could not put it down, and neither could my wife. Hunter Yager