Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir [Paperback]

Lorna Luft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999

The question follows Lorna Luft to this day: "What's it like to be Dorothy's daughter?" Although by appearances glamorous and truly thrilling, growing up as the daughter of Judy Garland was anything but a journey over the rainbow.

With unsparing candor, Lorna Luft offers the first-ever insider portrait of one of Hollywood's most celebrated families: a rare story of a little girl, her half-sister Liza, and her baby brother trying desperately to hang on to the mother whose life seemed destined to burn brightly but briefly. Lorna makes an extraordinary journey back into the spiral of love, addiction, pain, and loss that lurked behind a charmed facade.

Filled with behind-the-scenes dramas, hilarious untold stories, and little-known details of Garland family life, Me and My Shadows is a tribute to Lorna's victory over her own past, a story of hope, of love and its limitations, and a deeply moving testament to the healing powers of embracing one's past and charting a course of self-love and discovery.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Luft, often identified as Judy Garland's "other daughter," steps center stage to describe what life was like as the child of an icon. For the first nine years of her life, Luft was protected from the vagaries of her mother's prescription-drug abuse and downward-spiraling mental health. But after her parents' divorce, Luft found herself in the role of chief cook and bottle washer--in charge of cleaning up her mother's messes. The horror stories from this period include breakdowns, breakups with almost everyone who was close to Garland, paranoia, and even knife-wielding episodes in which Garland went after her young son. After Luft had her own breakdown at 16, she left her mother's home and never saw Garland alive again. Despite all the horror, Luft is kind to her mother's memory, seeing the star as sick, not evil, and remembering all the many loving times shared between mother and daughter. Sister Liza Minelli doesn't fare quite as well. Although Luft has many nice things to say about her, Liza's drug abuse has left the pair estranged. Oh, yes, Luft had her own life, too, but not unexpectedly, her affairs with even the likes of Burt Reynolds and Barry Manilow and her own drug problems don't make for nearly as fascinating reading as her tales of Judy and Liza. Dishy--and sure to be popular. Ilene Cooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Breathless writing, tight structure, and an endless A-list of stars make this memoir by the younger Garland daughter a movie fan's parfait. Daughter of Garland and businessman Sid Luft, Lorna writes this book neither to glorify nor to vilify her family, but to tell ``a truer . . . story'' about ``a group of people who grew up in the public eye and got through it all the best way they could.'' Thankfully, understatement ends there. Beginning with Frances Gunn's first steps onstage at age two and ending with her daughter Lorna's happy second marriage, the book is rife with dramatic events. Skillfully divided into two partslife with Mama, life after her deathit details Garland's decades-long chemical dependency (including her first studio-sanctioned Benzedrine) and Lorna's early life as her caregiver, her emotional swings, and especially her great love for her two daughters and her son, Joe. Lorna also charts Garland's hard-won sobriety and attempts to bring Liza to detoxification programs. Throughout, the book brims with famous friends: Uncle Frank Sinatra, girlfriend's parents Bogart and Bacall, JFK and his sweet-voiced wife Jackie, early love Barry Manilow. Everything is presented in a pleasingly sustained voice that blends once-stylish phrasings, self-help lingo, and quirky if awkward locutions to create a linguistic world in which ``damn straight, ``dysfunctional,'' and the kooky line ``For every camel, there's a last straw, and there was for me'' coexist. It also suits the writer, for as she presents herselfby turns mature, facile, feeling, and graciousshe is a '90s everywoman, the person you'd see yourself being if you had been the child of a troubled movie legend. Confessional yet affectionate, this grants weight and closure to an overdiscussed film family. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Literary Guild selection; author tour; TV satellite tour; ABC-TV miniseries) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671019007
• ISBN-13: 978-0671019006
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #564,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( G ) > Garland, Judy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A real page-turner; I couldn't put it down, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Me And My Shadows: A Family Memoir (Hardcover)

Lorna Luft tells her personal story about growing up the daughter of an adored and afflicted mother. As the child of one of the world's truly legendary stars, Luft tells what it was like to love and live with the tragedy and triumph that was Judy Garland. She pulls no punches, opens herself up honestly, presenting both the positive and negative sides of all the members of this difficult family from her own perspective. Yet, the the love and admiration she has for all of them is clear. Her feelings are honest and open (for good or bad). Luft givews you an insight into the real life that the publicity mills hid. Her devotion to her mother AND her father is a testament to true love which loves in spite of as much as because of who you are. Her ability to rise above her own fears and weaknesses, problems and addictions as well as her vivid storytelling makes this a real page-turner. Is it all true? Is it exaggerated? Is it fair? I'm not here to judge that. It's a great read. THAT, I can judge.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An honest, anecdote-filled memoir., February 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir (Paperback)

Lorna Luft's book exceeded any expectations I had about how interesting or entertaining it would be. It was by turns illuminating, funny, sad, wistful, and ultimately hopeful. She is truly learning the lessons of her (often tragic) heritage, and this book is a tribute to that process, as well as an honest portrait of her amazingly talented mother. She includes anecdotes you won't read anywhere else, and anyone interested in Judy Garland will find these stories revelatory. Luft has been accused of merely name-dropping here, but if her career and life-experiences have taken her into the paths of numerous famous individuals, why shouldn't she mention them? It would be ridiculous to expect her to write an honest memoir about her life and her mother's without naming names along the way. Ditto for her comments about Liza, who, judging from recent public appearances, looks to be headed further down that road of addiction and chemical dependency. More's the shame. There isn't anything extraordinarily graceful or eloquent about this book, but it is better than you'd expect it to be. And if you get the chance to see Lorna live doing her tribute to her mother, don't miss it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Revealing Account Of Judy and Liza's Life By Lorna Luft", April 26, 2009

By 

Terry Richard "Terry Richard" (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Me and My Shadows: A Family Memoir (Paperback)

Lorna Luft's book "Me and My Shadows-Life With Judy Garland" documents Lorna's life with her famous mother, who was battling addition to prescription drugs, and who would eventually die when Lorna was only 17. The book is not another "Mommie Dearest", but a memoir where a daughter writes about the problems and demons her mother was faced with on a daily basis. Nowhere in the book does Lorna ever say that she hates her mother: she instead dramatizes the sad events that led up to Judy's untimely death, and the problems that her mom faced with an addiction that she could not overcome. Miss Luft is very understanding of her mom's problems, for she knows better than anyone that back in the 1950's and '60s prescription pill addiction was never discussed and there was no Betty Ford Center to help people beat their dependacy. An excellent book, with well documented stories of her life with one of Hollywood's greatest stars, Lorna Luft proves she is an extraodinary writer in the truest sense. The second half of the book also discusses Lorns'a half-sister Liza Minnilli, and Liza's dependency on alcohol and drugs, and the help Lorna gave her in her recovery. Lorna is also very upfront about her own addiction to cocaine in the 1970's.
"Me and My Shadows..." was made into a well-received TV miniseries in 2001 that aired on ABC, ultimately winning 5 Emmy's. The book is one of the best memoirs ever written. Lorna Luft should be applauded for her courage in telling her story: many in her own family, including Liza and Lorna's dad Sid Luft, stopped talking to her when the book was published.