Keeping Secrets [Hardcover]

Suzanne Somers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1988

From superstar Suzanne Somers comes the much-talked-about, painfully honest account of her life in an alcoholic family and the difficult road to recovery. Although a book about pain and struggle, Keeping Secrets is also an inspiring personal story in which Suzanne Somers shares her family's ultimate triumph over the disease. HC: Warner. (Nonfiction)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an autobiography that unfolds from the viewpoint of the adult child of an alcoholic, Somers reveals the dark underpinning of her acting career. She shows us the gradual disintegration of her family due to their keeping the guilty secret of the father's affliction. The facade of normal family life was initially supported by Somers's stoic, churchgoing mother, but it also became the burden of the children. Though Somers's childhood in San Francisco was made harrowing by the rampages of her alcohol-maddened father, there were interstices of family togetherness. The author had a stormy adolescence, including a short-lived first marriage that produced a son; her siblings were affected by their own alcoholism until one, then another, joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Today, writes Somers, "Everyone in my family is now recovering." Her courageous outspokenness will support other children of alcoholics. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1St Edition edition (February 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446513954
• ISBN-13: 978-0446513951
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Suzanne Somers is the author of sixteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Keeping Secrets, five Somersize titles, and The Sexy Years. The former star of the hit television programs Three's Company and Step by Step, Suzanne is one of the most trusted and respected brand names in the world, representing cosmetics and skin care products, apparel, jewelry, a computerized facial fitness system, fitness products, and an extensive food line. Suzanne received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from National University and is a highly sought-after commencement speaker. For more information, go to her website SuzanneSomers.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary reading, October 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeping Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

Lying separates people is one of the many poignant quotes I remember from this book. Anyone, regardless of age, let me qualify that, anyone in Jr. High or older, can learn something about themselves, friend, partner, neighbour or loved one after completing this book. Somers does a masterful job in systematically outlining her life as a young person. She utilizes Sharon W-Cruz' model of the dysfunctional family very well. Anyone in denial should not read this book. The illusions of chemical dependency are stripped and the facades are challenged. We are not talking about some dozzy fake blond we saw on '3's company'. We are talking about the ghosts that Suzanne allowed to come out of her closet. She has the academic ability to do what former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy who was victimized by his Junior hockey coach (Graham James) has not been able to do...yet. Good for her. People, kids and victims need to read this.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keeping Secrets, January 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeping Secrets (Mass Market Paperback)

Suzanne Somers' book, Keeping Secrets, is written in a straightforward style that is very easy to relate to and makes the reader feel like hiding in a closet just as Suzanne and her siblings did during their unbearable childhood, suffered at the hand of a rock-bottom alcoholic father. Suzanne is huanted by the sickness of alcoholism and co-dependency well into adulthood. For anyone who is a child of an alcoholic, this book is highly recommended. The triumph of the entire family over alcohol and disfunction is inspiring.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When your little world is out of whack!, February 21, 2005

By 

Rizzo (Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Keeping Secrets (Hardcover)

With an intention to skim this book, I became engrossed in what Suzanne Somers had to say about her life before fame and living with a severely alcoholic parent.

She shares vivid details she endured at the hands of her father, low self-esteem, shame, fear, anger, violence, craziness, hostility, chaos and more. As she describes her pain and emotional feelings, she backs up what she says to give the reader some better understanding of her behavior or that of the alcoholic.

One example is when her father ripped her nicest clothes she wore while attending school. With a heavy object, she almost cracked his head open and feared he was dead; she blamed herself and begged that he not die. Asking herself why she reacted with violence over simple clothes, her response was that the clothes were a mask that hid who she really was and a mask to the shameful crazy sick homelife. She helps the reader by explaining thoughts and actions taken.

The story begins when she was a child and it follows Suzanne after she left home to reveal a chaotic financially struggling young woman with a kid, early marriage, affairs, abortion, therapy, and so on. Fortunately, she and Alan Hamel, a Canadian producer, resolved their edgy relationship combining two families and they lived happily ever after, since she is still married to him as of 2007.

Suzanne's mother was not a drinker, but too weak and powerless to intervene. Back in those days it was easier to let drinkers just be drinkers.

But I am baffled how a mother allows a man to be cruel to her children, to destroy their spirit and soul? I'm quite sure the mother's esteem is broken down too. To me, there can not ever be any excuse to torment children.

The final notes Suzanne Somers shares come from a dinner/entertainment act sponsored by the Alcoholics Anonymous, initiated by her sister Maureen, who has recovered. Two brothers followed the path of their father also. Somers feels grateful that her entire family has recovered or is in the process. This book was published in 1988 and her father had been free of alcohol for 10 years.

This is a very well-written book that helps to understand the family dynamics and the troubled alcoholic.... Rizzo