So, I haven't posted in ages, but it's not because I haven't been reading! I read this over Spring Break a couple of weeks ago. This book is about a woman who grew up dealing with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. If you're not familiar with what this is, here is a basic definition: "a form of child abuse in which a parent induces real or apparent symptoms of a disease in a child."For this woman, her mother was insistent on her having a heart problem. She malnourished her daughter and caused her to have minor health issues that she blew into major health problems. Her mother also did this to Julie's brother and foster children that she managed to get into her home.
I think the thing that struck me most about Gregory's experience was that what her mother did affected her life as an adult even after she managed to escape. At one point in the memoir, Julie talks about how her mother mixed up a box of cake batter and told her to eat it with a spoon for dinner while she watched tv. Yeah. Later, when Julie is out on her own, she has no idea how to feed herself, and actually continues this strange dinner ritual because she doesn't know any better.
This was an incredibly interesting story, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in people who have suffered various types of child abuse, or if you just want something that seems so crazy it's hard to believe.
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