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Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
I’m So Glad You’re Here is the story of a family disrupted by ramifications of a father’s mental illness. The memoir opens with a riveting account of Gay, age eighteen, witnessing her father being bound in a straitjacket and carried out of the house on a stretcher. The trauma she experiences escalates when, after her father has had electroshock treatments at a state mental hospital, her parents leave her in a college dorm room and move from Massachusetts to Florida without her. She feels abandoned. Both her parents have gone missing.
Decades later, when Gay and her three much-older siblings show up for their father’s funeral, she witnesses her sundered family’s inability to gather together. Eventually, she is diagnosed with PTSD of abandonment and treated with EMDR therapy—and finally begins to heal. Poignant and powerful, I’m So Glad You’re Here is Gay’s exploration of the idea that while the wounds we carry from growing up in fractured families stay with us, they do not have to control us—a reflective journey that will inspire readers to think about their own relational lives.
Decades later, when Gay and her three much-older siblings show up for their father’s funeral, she witnesses her sundered family’s inability to gather together. Eventually, she is diagnosed with PTSD of abandonment and treated with EMDR therapy—and finally begins to heal. Poignant and powerful, I’m So Glad You’re Here is Gay’s exploration of the idea that while the wounds we carry from growing up in fractured families stay with us, they do not have to control us—a reflective journey that will inspire readers to think about their own relational lives.
Product Details
- Publisher: She Writes Press (May 26, 2020)
- Length: 168 pages
- ISBN13: 9781631528750
Raves and Reviews
2020 Best Book Awards Finalist in Narrative: Non-Fiction
“In this debut memoir, a father’s death reunites a mother and daughter but reignites familial tensions. Gay is a perceptive and compassionate narrator who manages to explore the gaps in everyone’s stories, including her own. She uses poetry, journal entries, and literary epigraphs to create an engaging metanarrative that explores how writing was vital to her process of overcoming trauma.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An inherently interesting and impressively candid personal story . . .”
—Midwest Book Review
“In I’m So Glad You’re Here, Pamela Gay takes us on a psychological journey through which she heals her own trauma while discovering compassion and empathy. Gay’s prose is lyrical and moving. I guarantee once you start reading, you won’t be able to put this book down.”
—Maria Mazziotti Gillan, author of American Book Award winner All That Lies Between Us
“An honest and moving account built upon her father’s mental illness and death and her yearning to be close to her mother. Gay details the repercussions of his illness on her family members and herself, giving us a brave and close-up view of how she coped with grief and trauma.”
—Roberta Allen, author of The Princess of Herself and The Dreaming Girl
“In this psychological travelogue, Pamela Gay fractures the surface of memory to peer into the depths of a family in all its complex dysfunction: shock treatment, alcoholism, feuding siblings, hissing turkey dinners, home burial, and yes, recipes—a surprising semiotic assemblage masterfully crafted at the crossroads of tragedy and comedy.”
—Mindy Lewis, author of Life Inside: A Memoir
“Pamela Gay dramatically illustrates that while wounds we carry from growing up in fractured families stay with us, they do not have to control us.”
—Susan Anderson, author of The Journey from Abandonment to Healing
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