City of One: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Francine Cournos (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

A poignant and unforgettable memoir of growing up orphaned. Francine was three years old when her father died, and by the time she was eleven, her mother was dead of breast cancer. "I had been hurled over a cliff," she writes. "The irreversibility of what had happened crashed down on me; a nauseating wave of fear and a flood of tears followed. I didn't know who I was without my mother. . . . What would fill the vast space left by the disappearance of this all-consuming relationship? How would I spend my time? What would I become?" In answering these questions, Dr. Francine Cournos offers a beautifully written memoir of an injured child's inner life, and the moving --even exhilarating --story of the ways in which, after much struggle and with considerable help from others, that injured child living in a foster home grew to become a happy and successful adult. In City of One, an inspiring account of triumph over childhood adversity, a distinguished psychiatrist applies her expertise to her own true story of growing up orphaned.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Cournos was three, her father died suddenly, leaving her pregnant mother with three children to support. In this riveting, sharply etched study of a child in distress, the author, who is now in her late forties and a professor of clinical psychiatry, recalls how a childhood marked by family tragedy led to years of depression and the feeling that adults could not be trusted. After her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, Cournos struggled to make herself into an adult by taking care of her younger sister and doing the housework, in hope that being good would save her mother's life. Upon her mother's death when Cournos was 11, the author and her sister went into foster care because her uncles and aunts refused to take them in. Cournos's prose captures her sense of abandonment and her ensuing emotional withdrawal. Despite many failed relationships with men, sexual passion allowed her to begin to feel again. A desire to understand her mother's death led Cournos to study medicine, during which time she began psychoanalysis, which provided her with the self-awareness she needed. Having overcome several setbacks, including a major depression, before becoming a happily married mother, Cournos is perceptive and convincing about the mark these experiences left on her. Agent, Richard Balkin.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Francine's early childhood was full of fun adventures and happy memories. For even though Francine's father had passed away when Francine was three, her mother made sure her children knew joy. And then, tragically, Francine's mother lost her fight with cancer. Francine and her younger sister lived a short time with their grandmother until she became too feeble to care for them. It was then that, despite numerous aunts and uncles, the children were declared orphans and placed in foster homes. By burying the raw emotions deep within her, Francine stubbornly survived and even excelled, eventually becoming a doctor of psychiatry. The emotions she had buried surfaced later--City of One is the chronicle of her journey of healing. Although Cournos could publicly have ostracized the extended family that rejected her, the tone is that of acceptance and rejoicing in the knowledge that her daughter will never know that treacherous pain of rejection. From tragic to inspirational, City of One is an impressive lesson in one woman's ability to endure. Toni Hyde

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393047318
• ISBN-13: 978-0393047318
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book helped me,as a foster child, understand so much., April 25, 1999

By 

E. Coffin (East Meadow, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: City of One: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I am not only a reader of this book, but the author's "foster" sister. This book helps to show how five different children brought together by different circumstances, yet raised as siblings, will develop so differently. The way the passages went from exlpaining why she felt the way she did as a child, when she later understood much more as an adult was deeply moving. She was able to do so much to help others yet unable to help her own circumstances. I feel this book is very important to those who have been lost and feel there is no end in site. People still take childrens loss and have trouble dealing and understanding it. To help a child, to nuture and make that child feel loved and special is every persons job. I am a very poor reader, but found this book riveting and was unable to put it down, until I completed it. The book was written so the reading was easy and the words flowed. This book is for adults and children both. It shows when you allow yourself to feel worthy of love and open enough to share even your horrors with one person, only then you can start to heal. I lived with and loved her yet never knew what was going in the mind of my sister, how sad. How sad it must have been in "A City of One".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars moving and brave, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: City of One: A Memoir (Hardcover)

This book moved and enlightened me. Cournos' story of surviving what every child fears most--the loss of both her parents--is raw, vivid, and remarkably compassionate given that she became a foster child through willful neglect on the part of her extended family. Cournos succeeds in transforming her own particular journey into a roadmap for others who want or need to understand what it is to be an orphan. Brave and beautifully done!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling and touching memoir, June 28, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: City of One: A Memoir (Hardcover)

It didn't occur to me that I would be so touched by Francine Cournos's book. I have an interest in child welfare issues, which is why I read it. She deals with a much bigger issue than foster care -- she writes about the voluminous effect that the loss of parents can have on a child throughout his or her life. Brava, Dr. Cournos. Thank you for sharing your life with us. This is a must-read for anyone who works with children in any arena.