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    Chanel Bonfire
    Chanel Bonfire
    Chanel Bonfire
    Audiobook6 hours

    Chanel Bonfire

    Written by Wendy Lawless

    Narrated by Wendy Lawless

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    By the time Wendy Lawless turned seventeen, she'd known for quite some time that she didn't have a normal mother. But that didn't stop her from wanting one . . .Georgann Rea didn't bake cookies or go to PTA meetings; she wore a mink coat and always had a lit Dunhill plugged into her cigarette holder. She went through men like Kleenex, and didn't like dogs or children. Georgann had the ice queen beauty of a Hitchcock heroine and the cold heart to match.Wendy Lawless deftly charts the highs and lows of growing up with her younger sister in the shadow of an unstable, fabulously neglectful mother. Georgann, a real-life Holly Golightly who constantly reinvents herself as she trades up from trailer park to penthouse, suffers multiple nervous breakdowns and suicide attempts while Wendy tries to hide the cracks in their fractured family from the rest of the world.Chanel Bonfire depicts a childhood blazed through the refined aeries of the Dakota and the swinging town houses of London, while the girls' beautiful but damned mother desperately searches for glamour and fulfillment. Ultimately, Wendy and her sister must choose between living their own lives and being their mother's warden-the hardest, most painful, yet most important decision each of them will ever make.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 25, 2013
    ISBN9781452681818
    Chanel Bonfire
    Author

    Wendy Lawless

    Wendy Lawless is an actress who has appeared on television, in regional theater, Off-Broadway in David Ives’s Obie-winning play All in the Timing, and on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. Her work has appeared in Redbook magazine, on Powells.com, and in the local Los Angeles press. She lives in California with her screenwriter husband and their two children.

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    Reviews for Chanel Bonfire

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      ‘Chanel Bonfire’ is a tale of growing up with a mentally ill mother who, I suspect, was incapable of love. Her entire life was about manipulating people and seeking adoration, even from children too young to understand. While she wasn’t a wire coat hanger wielding physical abuser (most of the time), she was the master of screwing with minds. The beautiful Georgann Rea was an extreme example of Narcissism. Her life was one big illusion: that she was loved, that she was rich, that she knew the ‘right’ people, that every man wanted her, that she was young forever. No one was allowed to disrupt those illusions; if one did, they were cut out of her life. One of those disruptions caused her to run away to Europe with her two daughters, severing all contact with their father. Lawless would not have contact with him again until she was an adult. The girls basically raise themselves in a hostile environment. Sometimes the environment was quite luxurious, but it was always a minefield for Lawless, who had to police her every word and gesture to avoid setting off her mother. The two girls counted the days until they graduated high school and could escape. This sounds like a grim read. In the hands of many writers, it easily could have been. But Lawless has a dry wit, and the book is riveting. I kept thinking to myself that Georgann couldn’t do anything worse, and yet she always did. What amazes me is that the girls turned out well- very well. Rather than damaging their psyches, it almost seems like the trials of their childhood made them stronger.
    • 5/5
      I could not put this book down. Two little girls who are growing up with their incredibly narcissistic mother don't know that not everyone lives like this. Their mom is manipulative to the point of abuse. I mean, she is really crazy. When their father remarries, she sweeps them off to Europe and tells them that he doesn't want them anymore, now that he has a new family. The girls try to distinguish between her truth and lies for much of their lives. A fascinating read.
    • 5/5
      Chanel Bonfire was an amazing read. I’ve always been infatuated with reading true stories about people growing up with a narcissistic parent(s) so I knew I needed to read this memoir. I devoured this book in a matter of hours—I couldn’t put it down. I loved how in their own right both Wendy and Robin overcame their mother and their situation. The writing was flawless and captivating.
    • 5/5
      I love the way Wendy writes. This is one of those books that is hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      Great read! Honest and painful memoir, with a few laughs sprinkled in for good measure.

      Wendy Lawless and her sister, Robin, grew up with an unstable Grace Kelly-ish mother who drank and drank and then, unfortunately for all involved, drank some more. Their beautiful and conniving mother also collected a menagerie of men, most who were able to afford many splendid things such as luxury cars, homes, private schools, vacations. However, the one thing that money could never attain was their mother's happiness or the ability to care for her children responsibly, without the neglect that the girls suffered throughout their young lives. Oh! They're are some horrifying recollections from Wendy that just make me utterly sad that some women are able to give birth and call themselves mothers, regardless if they want to be a mother or not. Wendy and Robin's mother did NOT want to be a mother and she let her children know that more often than necessary. There is a Christmas that Lawless recalls in the book that totally broke my heart for these two little girls. How could a mother be so cruel? Lawless writes her memoir with great depth and emotion but never appears to be whining and has a lot more patience for her mother's antics than I could ever manage.

      Lawless's upbringing was so very different from mine. I had loving parents who don't have a selfish bone in their bodies. I cannot imagine growing up in a household such as Wendy and Robin. I am sorry that they suffered the way that they did but I am glad that Lawless had the courage to tell her story and share the painful details. What I am really grateful for is that sometimes tragic stories DO have happy endings, in one form or another, if one is willing to work at happiness and learns to let go and break the cycle. Well done, Wendy Lawless! I think it is safe to say that with this book you have exorcised the demons of the past.
    • 4/5
      This book struck a cord with me from the very first page, and I couldn't pull myself away from it. Lawless has wonderful approach to recounting her childhood. The story flows even though it covers so many years. I'm still in awe that Lawless was able to get past the horrendous years of her childhood unscathed.This book won't disappoint, and I highly recommend it to everyone. From the riveting first page to the deeply satisfying epilogue, you'll be impressed with Lawless' writing and outlook on life.**I was gifted this book for free in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the author and/or publisher.
    • 4/5
      Mommy dearest had nothing on the evil manipulating mother in this memoir. My childhood seems like a cake walk in comparison. Wendy Lawless recounts her childhood and teenage years trying to come to terms with her mother; a woman who threatened to kill her two daughters, who told her she should have had abortions instead of having kids, who tried to sleep with Wendy's boyfriend, who threw out all their toys, who told her kids their father hated them and never wanted to see them again, and many more terrible evil things.Despite being horribly depressing, this memoir is moving and intriguing and the optimism that Wendy managed to hold onto is moving. It's a short memoir that will make you want to hold your kids and tell them how much you love them and really sincerely mean it.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book ! Even though while reading it I often had difficulty understanding why someone would hurt another human being in such ways, especially one that was supposed to be loved unconditionally. I applaud the author for the strength it must have taken to share such intimate details with us. Would definitely recommend.
    • 4/5
      Growing up with an alcoholic, narcissistic, and mentally ill mother was by no means easy for Wendy and her younger sister Robin. Keeping the severe dysfunction hidden behind closed doors was even harder. Wendy, the dutiful older daughter, became the glue that held her family together despite the neglectful and manipulative ways of her mother Georgann. Robin on the other hand, had very little patience for her mother’s shenanigans. Always on the lookout for a rich man and living beyond her means, Georgann moved the girls to New York, London, and Boston (just to name a few) in search of the life she felt she deserved. All the while Georgann maintained that the girls’ biological father had a new family and no longer wanted them. Manipulation was her forte, telling the girls things like “My doctor thinks that if you and your sister appreciated me more, I wouldn’t be so depressed” and “…my doctor thinks that it’s because of you girls that I drink”. As Georgann’s behavior became more erratic and dangerous, the two sisters did all they could to break free from their mother’s grip and live their own lives. Similar to The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, this is a memoir loaded with family dysfunction that reads like a novel and is told with self-reflective honesty and more than a little humor.
    • 5/5
      ‘Chanel Bonfire’ is a tale of growing up with a mentally ill mother who, I suspect, was incapable of love. Her entire life was about manipulating people and seeking adoration, even from children too young to understand. While she wasn’t a wire coat hanger wielding physical abuser (most of the time), she was the master of screwing with minds. The beautiful Georgann Rea was an extreme example of Narcissism. Her life was one big illusion: that she was loved, that she was rich, that she knew the ‘right’ people, that every man wanted her, that she was young forever. No one was allowed to disrupt those illusions; if one did, they were cut out of her life. One of those disruptions caused her to run away to Europe with her two daughters, severing all contact with their father. Lawless would not have contact with him again until she was an adult. The girls basically raise themselves in a hostile environment. Sometimes the environment was quite luxurious, but it was always a minefield for Lawless, who had to police her every word and gesture to avoid setting off her mother. The two girls counted the days until they graduated high school and could escape. This sounds like a grim read. In the hands of many writers, it easily could have been. But Lawless has a dry wit, and the book is riveting. I kept thinking to myself that Georgann couldn’t do anything worse, and yet she always did. What amazes me is that the girls turned out well- very well. Rather than damaging their psyches, it almost seems like the trials of their childhood made them stronger.
    • 4/5
      This was fantastic, I couldn't put it down. I don't know how I missed this, but in the very beginning, I wasn't aware that it was a memoir - thought it was more of a novel like The Chocolate Money, which was fantastic in its own right. Similar themes, the crazy wealthy mother, lots of men, lots of insanity, which of course I loved. Searingly honest, hard to stomach at times, wondering when the next bomb would drop for Wendy and her sister Robin. I couldn't help but empathize with Wendy, as an older sister. I'll be looking forward to her next novel, for sure.
    • 5/5
      This book was addicting because Lawless' life is so unbelievable it reads like fiction. Lawless and her sister grow up living with a psychotic mother who makes their lives unstable. They are dragged all over the world following their mother as their mother puts her needs and wants before her daughters' basic necessities. There are parts of this book that were truly shocking. In the end, I admire Lawless and her sister for their bravery and strength to move on from such difficult childhoods.
    • 4/5
      A very personal book, both for the author and for the reader. When the reader can relate to the abuse the author shows how the different people respond differently to the abuse. The characters in the story develop well over time, it becomes more and more clear which choices are made by whom, and why. Having that said, when the reader can't relate to the abuse, the the book is probably no more than a recount of a fantastic crazy life of a mother.
    • 4/5
      Chanel Bonfire by Wendy Lawless is a refreshingly honest yet horrifically heartbreaking memoir. Chanel Bonfire is a powerful memoir focusing on Wendy’s childhood which was riddled with emotional abuse and neglect from her mother. This heartbreaking story will capture your heart and attention and won’t let go until you reach the conclusion.Wendy Lawless and her sister, Robin, had a childhood that no child should have to live through. Their mother was a drunk who endlessly played the victim. She had many tumultuous affairs which eventually led to a nervous breakdown which she would take out on her children, lock herself in her bedroom for weeks on end wearing a blue nightie, attempt suicide, and ultimately led the family to relocate to another high society area. Wendy was the protector of the family. She tried to shield her sister from the harsh realities of their childhood. Can Wendy and her sister get out from under the power of their mother?It is hard to imagine the life that these children were dealt and that no one did anything to help them. Even though they led a life a luxury, the horrors that hid behind the door make no one envy them. This is a powerful memoir showcasing the life one can lead after breaking the chains of abuse.