Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back (P.S.) [Paperback]

Claire Fontaine (Author), Mia Fontaine (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 12, 2008 | Series: P.S.

In powerful parallel stories, mother and daughter give mesmerizing first-person accounts of the nightmare that shattered their family and the amazing journey they took to find their way back to each other. Claire Fontaine's relentless cross-country search for her missing child and ultimate decision to force her into treatment in Eastern Europe is a gripping tale of dead ends, painful revelations, and, at times, miracles. Mia Fontaine describes her refuge in the seedy underworld of felons and addicts as well as the jarring shock of the extreme, if loving, school that enabled her to overcome depression and self-loathing. Both women detail their remarkable process of self-examination and healing with humor and unsparing honesty.

Come Back is an unforgettable true story of love and transformation that will resonate with mothers and daughters everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A nightmarish saga of a teenage runaway in L.A. ends triumphantly thanks to love and support from her screenwriter mom and stepdad. At 15, Mia gets involved in a dangerous drug and Wicca scene, stunning her successful, controlling mother, Claire, and stepfather, Paul. But the signs were in place earlier, after Mia's history of being sexually abused by her biological father, a violent, vindictive drug user whom Claire left with difficulty. Sent to Indiana to live with Claire's sister, Mia starts using cocaine heavily and even gets arrested. When the destructive behavior (including self-mutilation) accelerates, Claire and Paul send Mia to the unlikely Morava Academy, in the Czech Republic, a kind of Spartan military institution where 50 teens are rigorously monitored and reprogrammed. Meanwhile, back in L.A., the parents undergo an intensive group therapy called Discovery to learn to shed guilt for their daughter's behavior, and also forgive her. Oddly, Morava is soon shut down after allegations of staff abuse, but Mia goes through a brilliant turnaround at Spring Creek Lodge in Montana. Mia's desperate diary entries appear between Claire's lively, angry, sarcastic narrative, allowing mother and daughter to maintain a heart-wrenching, honest dialogue. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Come Back is a testament to the power of the love between a mother and a daughter.” (New York Times Book Review)

“Best mother-daughter memoir.” (Glamour)

“We strongly recommend this powerful mother-daughter memoir...Intense, shocking, and ultimately triumphant...” (Barnes & Noble)

“A nightmarish saga of a teenage runaway in L.A. ends triumphantly. . . . Heart-wrenching, honest dialogue.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A powerful and moving story of two brave women who struggled through darkness into the light.” (Susan Forward, Ph.D., author of Toxic Parents)

“A rare, visceral reading experience....Offering lessons in living, loving, and accepting responsibility that could benefit every reader.” (Edwin John Wintle, author of Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle’s Memoir)

“One of those rare books I could hardly put down until I finished. . . . Brilliant—and often funny, too!” (Leah Komaiko, author of Am I Old Yet?)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061567574
• ISBN-13: 978-0061567575
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 5.4 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #488,901 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Claire Fontaine is an author and screenwriter, and certified life and relationship coach. She is currently living in Paris and at work on a novel.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Your kid may not be a runaway or druggie; you can still learn a lot June 1, 2006

By Jesse Kornbluth TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The cover shows a little girl, aloft. Her mother's open hands are at the bottom of the photograph. It's a lovely, joyous picture. And one that every parent can relate to. Because the picture is a complete metaphor for our idealized relationship with our kids --- we launch our children heavenward, and revel in what we see: beautiful purity backed by a pure blue sky. What comes next is certain --- we'll catch them. Without fail. Because that's our first, our most important mission in life: to serve our children and protect them until they're able to take flight on their own.

But in Chicago, in the early '80s, Claire Fontaine --- for legal reasons, a pseudonym --- makes a seemingly innocent mistake, the kind made by any number of young women in love: She marries the wrong guy. Nick is a Golden Child of Mayflower stock. Well, not so golden. He smokes as much dope as he grows. And his family has views about sex that are --- well, "progressive" might not be the right word for it. "Sick" and "incestuous" come closer.

Claire and Nick have a daughter, Mia. Nick, who has long enjoyed nude gardening, now likes to wander about the house in the buff, pressing his two-year-old daughter against him. Clair objects. Nick has a stunning comeback: "Sex isn't something children should be protected from, Claire. It's like protecting them from good food or music." And, soon, he moves on to abuse his child. And, of course, to beat his wife and wreck their home.

Claire is confused, numb, slow to bolt. Taking Mia to the doctor is a defeat --- the pediatrician, impressed by Nick's name, defends him. Judges prefer more tests to making definitive rulings. No professional cares to hear from Mia, who remembers everything and is now terrified of her father.... Finally --- at great length --- Nick is ordered to undergo therapy as a condition of seeing his child. He declines.

When Mia is five, Claire meets Paul. He is handsome and decent, and he loves Mia the way a father should. Off they go to Los Angeles, where Mia becomes a top student at a prestigious private school and Claire establishes herself as a screenwriter. The past? Buried.

But life turns out to be like a horror movie; when you least expect it, the monster returns. When Mia is 15, she runs away. Her true friends and her real life, she says in the note she leaves behind, are on the streets. Oh, dear parents, don't worry: "I have a Swiss army knife and mace."

Right. A double life. Claire and Paul have missed it. The weight loss, the red faces, the pictures of dead punk heroes and books about street kids --- hey, she kept her grades up. And now Mia's off in the rain, probably to Venice Beach, where castaways find free drugs in exchange for free sex.

It gets crazy from here. How low can a girl fall? To a van. To skinheads. To heroin. And the thing about the bottom...well, as Emmylou Harris sings, "One thing they don't tell you about the blues/When you got em/You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom/There ain't no end." There's always worse, always greater degradation.

It hurt me --- I mean: physically --- to read this stuff. I wanted to kill Nick. To shake Mia. Claire? I don't know. I'm a parent. Of a daughter. Mostly, I kept muttering, "Please, God, not me...."

But then there's sunlight: a tough love school run by Americans in the Czech Republic. It's like a jail. You don't talk without permission. You earn tiny privileges by observing the rules to the letter, go back to square one if you screw up. And the administrators are in your face 24/7.

But do not think for one second that this is a story about the reclamation of screwed-up teens. This is a book about families, and the parents are on the hook too. Indeed, they're on a much bigger hook. For not only must they learn how to adjust whatever behavior that contributed to their kids' spectacular delinquency, they must learn to relate to the very different child who will be coming home. In short, they must undergo a mirror of the therapy their kids are getting.

I don't think I'm the only reader who --- at midpoint in this book, when the therapy kicks in --- stops reading a book about Mia and Claire and starts reading one that's much more personal. There are no spectators here. Some of the failings you're reading about --- if you're like me, they're yours too. And so the book morphs into a harsh, raw and yet altogether loving confrontation. A wake-up call. With a message that comes down to this: Look at what's there. Look how you deal with it. Look how it affects others. And, hardest of all, look what you get out of it.

To say there's a happy ending of this joint memoir is wrong. There's a happy beginning. When you get to the end, you'll want to cheer.

You don't have to be a parent with a death-bent kid to need this book --- just a parent who knows it's possible to communicate better with your child, but doesn't know quite how. Which is pretty much all of us. Read more ›

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult but true May 22, 2006

By Tina

Format:Hardcover

This memoir was one of the hardest books i have ever had to read and I am a big reader of this genre.

The story of a mother who does not seem her 15 year old self desctruct in front of her own eyes. Is nothing short of brilliant.

What I liked most was the raw honesty in this book. From the compelling beginning where the parents admit they "never had a clue" (scary) to the denial that anything was really bad to admitting that life was never going to be the same again.

A wonderful read.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book touched my heart March 28, 2006

By Carol Fitzgerald

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Come Back is a great read! The story is gripping, and filled with rich moments--I laughed and cried. But the power of the story goes much deeper than that. As a teacher, I work with troubled teens, and have seen their parents go through hell the way Claire Fontaine did. This is an important book, because the events leading to drug-addicted Mia's capture and her ultimate healing are true, and they offer fresh insight into what it takes to help this generation. The "cowboy therapist" who held a mirror to Mia while she was in the tough love program showed me the balance of limit-setting and authentic caring that is effective in helping kids like Mia. I loved that we hear both voices-- mother and daughter. Each is an exceptional writer--I was amazed. Sometimes their perspectives are in sharp discord. But as the story unfolds, and Mia begins to reclaim her innocence and her joy, they find a genuine harmony.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book May 20, 2006

By J. Broida

Format:Hardcover

Every once in a while, I read a book so moving, that I find myself in awe. For me, this was one of those books. Five years ago, I graduated from Spring Creek Lodge after spending nearly two years in the program. To this day, memories of my experience play a huge role in my life. The sad thing is that no one ever talks about it. And even of those who are willing, only the people who have experienced it can truly understand. To read something that is so straightforward and honest... something that truly captures the essence of the experience was truly refreshing. So many people have so many negative things to say about their experience (understandably), but so few people are willing to listen to the stories of the people who the program helped. I, for one, am thankful for this book. Almost everyday in my life people ask me about my experience in the program, but I find myself hard pressed to come up with an adequate description. I have always joked that it would take a book for someone to truly get a glimpse of my experience, but I never thought that book would exist. Well... here it is. Enjoy!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet September 23, 2006

By Diane Tye

Format:Hardcover

I believe the main purpose of this book is to show an example of how one's parent(s) must go to every extreme to save their child from drugs; even if that includes taking them against their will.
The program that she belonged to didn't seem too harsh at all. What some people forget to realize is they are dealing with DRUG ADDICTS. Besides using, we've perfected the art of manipulation when it comes to getting what we want & bending any rule to get it.

The bittersweet part of this book is that unfortunately, only the affluent can afford this type of program. This leaves most middle and all low income out in the dust. So, while it is a beautiful story about the bond between a mom & her daughter, it cannot be ignored that this type of care is not available to all. That is a shame as every life holds the same value.

I do highly recommend this book. It's easy reading & goes into the thoughts of Mia Fontaine and her mom, Claire. Both are going thru emotional rollercoasters. This book is also suitable for adolescents.