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She Left Me the Gun: My Mother's Life Before Me Hardcover – May 16, 2013

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Emma Brockes (Author)
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Emma Brockes (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars 134 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Press; First Edition edition (May 16, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594204594
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594204593
  • Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #918,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsChilling story set in South Africa
By Susan Blumberg-Kason VINE VOICE on April 29, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I read this story in less than two days. The writing is beautiful, the pace of the story is quick, and descriptions of South Africa are alluring. I knew it would be about a family tragedy, and after reading it I can't imagine what could be worse. The author's mother left South Africa at a young age to start over in England. She marries, has a child, and lives a quaint life in the English countryside. No one could possibly know the secrets that she hides, not even her husband and daughter. After her mother passes away, the author travels to South Africa to find out why her mother left and never returned. This book is not for the faint hearted, but it's a human story and one that is often locked away in shame and disgust. I give Emma Brockes huge credit for sharing her mother's story and for maybe helping others who might be facing devastation.
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4.0 out of 5 starsThe Dead Live in our Hearts
By Ian K. VINE VOICE on June 2, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Journalists and talented writers are not like most of us: they can write about their lives and their families and make it interesting reading. Emma Brockes is a Journalist and a talented writer and "She Left me the Gun" is an engaging book.

Emma Brockes' mother died of cancer at an earlier age than most people expect to die in our modern world. The dead live on in our hearts. Writing "She Left me the Gun" was a way for Emma to keep her mother in her heart and to bring her life into focus. All stories that we tell are also about ourselves, so the book was also a way for Emma to bring herself into focus.

Emma's mother, Paula, had Emma later in life. Emma comments that several of her Mother's friends thought that Emma would be a spoiled brat, because of how much her mother focused on Emma. As it turned out, Emma didn't turn out to be a brat. She may have been a core of her Mother's life, but her Mother was tough and was determined to raise a tough daughter.

One reason that many people do a poor job of writing about themselves or their families is that they do not structure the story like a three act play: with a start middle and end. Emma Brockes has this talent and has rendered the story in elegant english.

Emma's Mother, Paula, grew up in South Africa and emigrated to England when she was 22. She was fleeing a father that she had charged with the rape of her sisters. Her father was brought to trial, but was not convicted.

A strange thing about alcoholic pedophiles, which is what Emma's Grandfather was, is that they all seem to follow the same secret script that only monsters are issued. The story of Emma's Grandfather, Jimmy, is a tragically familiar one that plays out repeatedly through the eons of humanity.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsLay that pistol down, babe
By enubrius VINE VOICE on June 3, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Okay, the first thing you need to remember about this heart-stoppingly marvelous book is that it's a memoir.

This is important, because it READS like some kind of wonderfully intense novel.

Paula, Emma Brockes' mother, (who, by the way, DIDN'T leave her the gun) is one of the great literary characters of the past decade.

The fact that she is... was... no, IS, a real person who walked and talked with other real people. The fact that some... all too many... of them, might well have been "real", but had a tenuous grasp on "peoplehood" is irrelevant.

This is a story FILLED with all that is ugly and reprehensible in what we are sometimes ashamed to call the human race.

And yet.

It is one of the most uplifting books I have read.

Because, ultimately, it is about the two most important things there are.

No matter how it is expressed; no matter what curves, twists, turns, may obscure it; when it is there... and it is profoundly real, as it is here; NOTHING is more moving than the human spirit and a mother's love.

I love this book!
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3.0 out of 5 starsSags during the middle
By Neal Reynolds VINE VOICE on May 24, 2013
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Actually, this basically is a good book, heartfelt and for a memoir holds a certain amount of suspense. Unfortunately, there's a lot of unnecessary detail and unimportant incidents related in the central third of the book, and the inclination may well be to skim through a few chapters. It is a readable book and well worth reading even with a bit of a clunky midsection.
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2.0 out of 5 starsMisleading and disappointing
By Fiona Leonard on September 20, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I really feel like I was suckered with the book. Reading the blurb and a couple of reviews I was psyched. Described as "a chilling work of psychological suspense and forensic memoir" this book promised great things, but sadly it just didn't deliver.

When her mother dies, Emma Brockes is left not only with an aching sadness, but also a lot of questions about her mother's early life. Born in South Africa, her mother endured a childhood trauma that took her through the courts and eventually inspired her to leave Africa altogether and flee to London. She never returned. Over the years her mother hinted at what it was that she left behind, but she never got around to telling the story and Brockes never really asked. In the wake of her mother's death, Brockes decides to travel to South Africa to discover the truth for herself.

Given the pretext and the reviews I expected a book that would have me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what she uncovered. Instead, her mother's secret is revealed within days of her arriving in South Africa. (To be honest if she'd really wanted to know she could have just asked her father as there is a fairly strong suggestion that he knew all along.) And even when the secret is revealed it hardly comes as a surprise. There were enough signposts along the way to give you a pretty fair idea of what had happened.

The bulk of the story is not therefore a 'forensic memoir' but rather an exploration of how a family deals with a crisis and what the ramifications are for the individuals, their children and their own relationships. To summarise a couple of hundred pages - this is a sad book.

I really had the feeling that the marketing department at the publishing house wanted to make this into something that it isn't.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsNot What I Expected!

I read this book as a book club selection. This book was not entertaining at all. I did not enjoy this book and feel that much of the story could have been omitted.

Published 1 month ago by Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 starsIt was pretty dry for a nonfiction

It was pretty dry for a nonfiction. It was a good idea without gripping me. It could have been more impportant....

Published 3 months ago by Ed Reads
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

This book was very interesting.

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great writing and very interesting material.

Published 5 months ago by Terry Yakish
4.0 out of 5 starsGreat title and topic, gets astray at times

Emma Brockes' mother Paula was a dramatic and self-invented woman, originally from South Africa. Her mother left that country and bore Emma late in life. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Clarice
5.0 out of 5 starsGood Lord, where to start

Good Lord, where to start. First of all, thank goodness this family story fell into the hands of a real journalist. And then she is such a thoughtful and funny writer. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Rayne Wolfe
4.0 out of 5 starsThe Secrets She Kept

I really liked the idea of this story when I first heard of the book, so that's why I bought it . I wish I could have given it a higher review, but it was a little hard to follow,... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Julie
5.0 out of 5 starsUnbelievable!!

This is a fantastic & terrible sad story. Her mother was an unbelievably strong and wonderful woman.

Published 11 months ago by tffny15
4.0 out of 5 starsGreat, sad read

A book about loss, alcoholism, violence and love. Easy to read despite the heavy subject matter. Highly recommended and important.

Published 11 months ago by Jarred Cinman
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

A little slow and hard to follow.

Published 13 months ago by wendie davidson

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