The Deep End: A Memoir of Growing Up [Hardcover]

One day, when Mary Rose Callaghan was 13, her mother jumped into the freezing Irish Sea. Knowing that her mother was an asthmatic, the shock of seeing her dive into the deep end began Mary Roses curiosity about her mothers life. That curiosity spawned the writing of this memoir, a coming-of-age tale focused on Mary Roses relationship with her mother, which endured through economic hardship, and her mothers descent into mental illness and alcoholism. The Deep End begins by tracing her mothers arrival in Ireland in the 1930s, training to be a nurse, and marriage to Mary Roses father, continues through Mary Roses difficult childhood and later success as a writer, and culminates with her marriage to Robert Hogan and her mothers death.Mary Rose Callaghan is an Irish novelist and biographer.

If Frank McCourt had been a woman, this would have been his story. No, it could only be Mary Rose Callaghan's, an eldest daughter, simultaneously trying to save her father, her five siblings, and her beloved mother from mental illness, alcoholism, asthma, extreme poverty, terrifying debt. Our family had experienced a tragedy as bad as any Shakespeare, she says when her father dies, and sure enough, the gradual dissolution of her once-wealthy and prestigious family is worthy or the bard. Mary Rose herself, as she stumbles through her school years, her head always n a book, is tragic, brave, and funny. This is an amazing tale that swoops up the whole of the culture, and of America's, with grace and intelligence. Felda Brown, poet and essaysit

Dont be surprised if you read The Deep End all in one sitting, laughing often, feeling deeply moved. Its a page-turner, the story of a girl, her flamboyant mother, and how the two parented one another as the family moved from one house to another and fell on bad times. Mary Rose Callaghan has a gift for selecting details. She paints a poignant picture of her childhood and adolescence, but by the end of the book, her readelCà