Chanel Bonfire: A Book Club Recommendation!

(Paperback)

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In her stunning memoir, Wendy Lawless tells the often heartbreaking tale of her unconventional upbringing with an unstable alcoholic and suicidal mothera real-life Holly Golightly turned Mommie Dearestand the uncommon sense of resilience that allowed her to rise above it all.

Georgann Rea didnt bake cookies or go to PTA meetings; she wore a mink coat and always had a lit Dunhill plugged into her cigarette holder. Shed slept with too many men and a few women, and she didnt like dogs or children. Georgann possessed the icy beauty of a Hitchcock heroine with the cold heart to match.

From living at the Dakota in 1960s Manhattan to Londons swinging town houses and beyond, Wendy Lawless and her younger sister navigated day-to-day life as their unstable and fabulously neglectful mother, Georgann, chased her delusions, suffered dramatic breakdowns, and survived suicide attempts. With clear-eyed grace and flashing wit, Lawless portrays the highs and lows of her unhinged upbringingand how she survived her mothers endlessly destructive search for glamour and fulfillmentin a searing memoir that reads like a novel (Anne Korkeakivi, An Unexpected Guest).

Reviews

Lawless leavens her harrowing story with biting humor and never descends into self-pity--but boy, do we feel for her. -- People
"Frequently entertaining chronicle of a daughters sad, detached upbringing." -- Kirkus
[A] darkly comic memoir[Lawless] chronicles her mothers decline from sparkling femme fatale to desperate drunk in this simultaneously chilling and hilarious tale, whose unmistakable message is that though Lawless has, in some ways, led a privileged life, she never got the one thing she most wanted: her mothers love." -- O Magazine
[A] quick but powerful read that you can only wish was fiction. -- USA Today
Lawlesss chronicles of life with her charming, wildly unstable mother could be bleak, but the authors wit, resilience, and compassion make her story illuminating and inspiring. -- Reader's Digest
"A searing memoir that reads like a novel, as Lawlesss beautiful, unstable mother careens through the swinging sixties and seventies in New York, London, Paris and Morocco, two captive blond daughters in tow, before bottoming out in Boston. What astonishes is the authors ability to tell her often hair-raising story of survival not only with lucidity and fluency but wry humor." -- Anne Korkeakivi, author of An Unexpected Guest
[A] wrought and engaging memoir. * Publishers Weekly *
I was blown away by Wendy's ability to tell the story of such an emotional, troubled upbringing with such heart, love, and oftentimes, humor. If she isn't bitter, maybe none of us have the right to be. I found her story riveting. -- Sarah Colonna, New York Times bestselling author of Life as I Blow It
"Mothers, in spite of what we wish desperately to believe, are sometimes very, very bad at taking care of children. Wendy Lawless survived her mother's flagrant horror show to bear witness and record her astonishing childhood. Chanel Bonfire makes an undesirable truth more vivid: some mothers just plain suck." -- Susanna Sonnenberg, New York Times bestselling author of Her Last Death and She Matters
Chanel Bonfire is both terribly funny and terribly tragic, often at the same time. With remarkable clarity, wit, and grace, Wendy Lawless recounts a childhood defined by her wildly unstable mother, a woman who can morph from Grace Kelly to Joan Crawford in the blink of an eye. I laughed a lot, teared up once or twice, and called my mom to say I love you once I finished.
-- Cristina Alger, bestselling author of The Darlings
What a heart-breaking memoir. I will never look at a blue nightgown the same way again!
-- Tim Gunn, New York Times bestselling author of Gunns Golden Rules and Tim Gunns Fashion Bible
This miracle of a memoir is completely free from self-pity, and its surprisingly suspenseful. -- BookPage
Without too much self-pity, and with a good dash of humor, Lawless recounts a childhood spent on the move. -- Bust
"Chanel Bonfire is provocative and affecting, sometimes humorous, and filled with sadness and loneliness. Wendy tells her story in a stunning, straightforward manner that is very moving." -- All Books Considered
"Lawless, a Broadway actress and essayist, keepsher prose straight forward, letting the story shine in this shockinglyentertaining memoir. -- Aritzia.com

Author Bio

Wendy Lawless is an actress who has appeared on television, in regional theater, Off-Broadway in David Ivess 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.