Jacki Lyden is a regular substitute host on NPR�s Weekend Edition and Weekend All Things Considered. She was
part of the award-winning NPR team that covered the Persian Gulf War. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Review
"An incredibly compelling narrative... of unconquerable love between mother and daughter"
--Carolyn See, author of Dreaming: A Family Memoir
Penguin Putnam Inc Web Site, August, 2000
Summary
As an adult, National Public Radio foreign correspondent Jacki Lyden has spent her life on the front lines of
some of the world�s most dangerous war zones. As a child, she lived in a war zone of a different kind. Her mother,
Dolores, suffered from what is now called manic depression; but when Jacki was growing up in a small Midwestern
town, Dolores was simply called crazy. In her manic phases, Dolores became Marie Antoinette or the Queen of Sheba,
exotically delusional and frightening, yet to young Jacki also transcendent, even inspiring. In time, Jacki grew
to accept, even relish, Dolores�s bizarre episodes, marveling at her mother�s creative energy and using it to fuel
her own. Heartbreaking, hilarious, and lyrical, this memoir of a mother-daughter relationship is a testimony to
obstinate devotion in the face of bewildering illness.
