Estranged, Jessica Berger Gross
Estranged, Jessica Berger Gross
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Estranged
Leaving Family and Finding Home

Author: Jessica Berger Gross

Narrator: Jessica Berger Gross

Unabridged: 7 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/29/2017


Synopsis

To outsiders, Jessica Berger Gross's childhood—growing up in a "nice" Jewish family in middle class Long Island—seemed as wholesomely American as any other. But behind closed doors, Jessica suffered years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father, whose mood would veer unexpectedly from loving to violent.

At the age of twenty-eight, still reeling from the trauma but emotionally dependent on her dysfunctional family, Jessica made the anguished decision to cut ties with them entirely. Years later, living in Maine with a loving husband and young son, having finally found happiness, Jessica is convinced the decision saved her life.

In her powerful memoir reminiscent of Jeannette Walls's bestseller The Glass Castle, Jessica breaks through common social taboos and bravely recounts the painful, self-defeating ways in which she internalized her abusive childhood, how she came to the monumental decision to break free from her family, and how she endured the difficult road that followed. Ultimately, by extracting herself from the damaging patterns and relationships of the past, Jessica has managed to carve an inspiring path to happiness—one she has created on her own terms. Her story, told here in a careful, unflinching, and forthright way, completely reframes how we think about family and the past.

About Jessica Berger Gross

Jessica Berger Gross is the editor of the anthology About What Was Lost: 20 Writers on Miscarriage, Healing, and Hope. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Salon, and the Globe and Mail.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Riva on September 25, 2017

My main takeaway from this book is that anyone can get a book contract these days! Advertised as "powerful" and "haunting," I found it to be neither. It's a long, uninteresting recitation of all the bad things that happened to her and how they continued to follow her into adulthood. She then attribu......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on March 04, 2019

There were so many mixed reviews of this book that I almost didn't read it. But, after reading it I think the issue with the reviews is whether or not you've experienced abuse or trauma. If you've never experienced that it might seem like she's spoiled or complaining or unreasonably angry (all thing......more

Goodreads review by Julie on April 13, 2023

I didn’t appreciate this memoir all that much. While the way the author’s father treated her was certainly terrible, so much of her story is her own lousy choices that she repeats over and over again. I understand that her childhood was awful, but as an adult her attitude and life choices are very s......more

Goodreads review by Phyllis on August 09, 2017

I enjoy reading memoirs, but I found myself annoyed with this author. If you are looking for a book in this genre, I would suggest The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls or Etched in Sand: A True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island, by Regina Calcaterra. Both of......more

Goodreads review by Kent on February 01, 2014

This little Kindle Single talks about a child/parent estrangement based on physical violence. The book felt one-sided and left me feeling ambivalent. The rabid fear the daughter felt for her aged father that brackets the story seems overblown. The author is estranged from her entire family, which ra......more