The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's True Story (Signet) [Paperback]

Eleanor Craig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1994 | Series: Signet

This is the agonizing and intensely moving true story of the author's beloved daughter's emotional breakdown. Renowned teen therapist Eleanor Craig tells of her daughter's downward spiral into depression and anorexia, and her wrenching account serves as a lesson in courage and commitment to all.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A Connecticut therapist's wrenching account of her daughter's emotional breakdown and drug addiction.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Ann seemed to have everything going for her--beauty, brains, friends, a loving family--but then it all came apart. This is the account of her demise, starting with a mental breakdown in her senior year at an ivy league college, to her death from AIDS 12 years later. Craig, a family therapist, presents the case in a direct, professional manner, but the fact that the young woman was her daughter adds strength and a bitter irony to this account. Excerpts from Ann's diary written during the period covered greatly enhance the book's poignancy. This is a powerful story that illustrates yet one more time that ``no man is an island'' and that actions have long-range repercussions.
- Pamela B. Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Signet (March 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451173678
• ISBN-13: 978-0451173676
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,157,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SHATTERED LIGHT, January 28, 2001

By 

BeatleBangs1964 (United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's True Story (Signet) (Paperback)

Ann Craig appeared to be the image of success. An academic and social leader, Ann demonstrated an empathy for the disenfranchised at an early age. Born in 1952, Ann became caught up in the social awareness theme of the 1960s and early-to mid 1970s.

Trouble became apparent in her life in 1975, the year she was supposed to graduate from Brown University. An incomplete thesis, a break up with a boyfriend, a relationship with an older man and increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior were the problems Ann exhibited. She hid in her closet and slashed her arms. Powerless, Ann's mother could no more force her into a hospital admission than her psychiatrist or the admitting physician. Ann finally agrees to hospitalization and received inpatient treatment at Austen Riggs Hospital in Connecticut. Patients are given almost complete freedom of mobility and decision making and it is there Ann deteriorates, becoming an incoherent refugee of yard sales and the detritus of other people's lives. After spending 1975-76 there, Ann's mother has her admitted at the hospital in Yale.

Ann's life spirals downward as does her mother's. Ann's parents divorce after four children and many years of marriage. Ann, too, splits "off" and her life becomes a litany of hospitals, delusions and a nomadic existence on the streets. She contracts AIDS and sadly becomes a casualty of this illness at age 34.

One especially moving part of the book was when the author called an AIDS hotline and spoke to a very caring, empathetic man. He then referred her to a doctor specialized in treating persons with AIDS who was a very empathetic man. It is this doctor and this unknown phone volunteer who offer a touch of humanity in the AIDS community and beyond.

Her survivors include her parents, a gentle stepfather, her two brothers and sister and several step siblings, an extended loving family. Her nephew coined the term about the moon being broken. It is an apt metaphor for the tragic last decade of Ann Craig's life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This book tells of the tragic death of a mentally ill child., March 12, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's True Story (Signet) (Paperback)

Does our society allow people with Alzheimer's disease to roam the streets working out their own problems? Do we finance constant visits to therapists so they can get to the root of their disorders? Why do we do that with younger people when they too are suffering from a brain based illness. I found this book so frustrating. Why wasn't this woman allowed to care for her sick daughter as she would have been allowed to care for an elderly parent? Because of our insane laws about the mentally ill this charming child became a drug addict and finally died of AIDS. The author is a wonderful mother. She did everthing our society would allow her to do. It wasn't enough.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, Well Written, April 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's True Story (Signet) (Paperback)

Some books touch us in ways that remain with us for many days of our lives. This book is one of them. When I finished the book I just closed it and said, "Wow" - it was such intense reading. I feel I know Eleanor Craig and her family. Be prepared to shed some tears -- at least I did. However this book is great and shows readers how drug abuse not only affects the user, but greatly hurts friends and families and how everyone feels so helpless. I have great respect for Ms. Craig and how she had the courage and strength to document the loss of her own daughter. I have loved and thoroughly enjoyed all of her books; I wish there were more. I thoroughly recommend also authors: Torey Hayden and Mary MacCracken. I have read all of their books.