Who Do You Think You Are?: A Memoir (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: middle sister, Lower East Side, Melody Bra, Long Island City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Myers (v-p, brand programs for the New York Times) considered herself a daddy's girl, until the death of her father when she was only 11 left her particularly lonely. In this dark though moving book, she explains that she never told her two younger sisters of her loneliness and found her mother's unpredictable cruelty truly bewildering. Although this was a working-class Jewish family in Queens in the 1960s and '70s, it wasn't the sort featured in storybooks. Her parents chain-smoked and fought endlessly, slinging curses at each other without a thought of their children listening. Alyse got herself into a gifted high school in Manhattan, found herself part-time jobs and enrolled in an affordable city college. It was only after she married and had a child herself that she started to understand her father had been a philanderer and her mother used morphine to cope. The greatest gift she gave her daughter was the determination to create a different sort of life for herself. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Bad parenting has prompted many a memoir; Myers’ is the latest. The eldest of three daughters, Myers was the one labeled by her beautiful, blue-eyed mother as the most likely to give her grief. The lament was largely unjustified. Myers was a smart, studious kid whose greatest crimes were her unconditional love for her father (a charmer and cad who disappeared without warning for long periods of time) and a persistent insistence that her mother should better her lackluster life. Myers’ mother hit her with a strap, and once, when Myers was 13, threw her out of their Queens apartment and told her never to come back. (The teen stayed at a neighbor’s down the hall; upon her return, her mother didn’t seem to care where she’d been.) After her mother’s death, Myers gains possession of a mysterious wooden box her mother had forbidden her to open. She hopes its contents will help explain her mother’s mean spirit and malaise. Myers, an executive at the New York Times, conveys a chilling childhood in crisp, candid prose. --Allison Block

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416543058
• ISBN-13: 978-1416543053
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,474 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My must-read book of the year, April 26, 2008

By	Amester17 (Exeter, NH) - See all my reviews

'Who Do You Think You Are?' is a beautifully written book. I read it in one sitting because, from the first page, I literally could not put it down. It is such a BRAVE book: it dares to look at that most sacrosanct -- and mythologized -- relationship: mother and daughter. And it tells a truth: that not all of us like our mothers. And not all mothers like their children.

The book begins with the mother's funeral. The only thing the author wants is a wooden box that has been hidden in her mother's closet for as long as she can remember. She takes the box but does not open it, afraid of the secrets contained within. We then flash back to the 60s in a poorer neighborhood in Queens. Through tight, beautiful prose, we learn of the author's childhood.

What is magical about this book is that it is not a chronicle of some nightmare or a retelling of yet another horrifying story of abject cruelty. Rather, 'Who Do You Think You Are?' is the story of what really goes on behind the closed doors of many peoples' lives. Relationships are not perfect. People hurt one another. People damage one another. And life goes on. Especially for the survivor. Ultimately, this is a book about what it means to love and to discover that place within yourself that lets you love in spite of the hurt you have suffered. It is also a book about forgiving and how that contributes to love. This is an amazing book and one that I recommend in the highest possible terms. It's a gem.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, April 28, 2008

By	J. Ferrara (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I loved this book. And I wouldn't have thought of it as my kind of book. A friend who liked it gave it to me to read and I couldn't put it down. There's something about the straightforwardness of the writing that just draws you in. My relationship with my mother wasn't as bad as that of the author, but I saw so many issues of our relationship reflected here that it really moved me. And the unexpected ending was amazing.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully sad, May 26, 2008

By	M. Davis (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Alyse Myers, if I recall correctly, is a marketing executive with The New York Times, and this is her first book. I recommend it highly!

This memoir makes me want to aspire to write my own. Alas, I doubt I could reach the simplicity of Myers' writing coupled with the profundity of it.

Maybe it's because the book relates closely to my poor, poor relationship with my mother, but that's not all of it, I think. It is simply a great read.

Why can't more books use the simplicity of writing to such powerful effect as Myers does? I sure wish I could.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? was, like other reviewers have said, a very fast read. So fast I didn't want it to end at times.

Five unequivocal stars!