Rescued from a pile of books that were "to be discarded." Available to anyone for a trade.

OK, I confess, I wasnt going to read this. The cover in uninspiring, the title a little non-committal. Am I glad I changed my mind? (rhetorical) What a lesson in human nature this was, and I recognised aspects of my own dysfuntional family in here (scary eh?)

A good read, not always happy, but by the end of the book you realise that we make our own destiny, and our lives are shaped by our own choices (good or bad).

I left this in Munich airport, gate 22, a couple of weeks ago.

The title doesn't sound inspiring, but the story is gripping, frightening, and full of insights that we are generally spared in our daily lives. It's a story of breakdown, self-destruction and survival. Sometimes the survival hangs by a thread, sometimes by more substantial means, but always there is the sense of struggling against unequal odds. It's a reminder of how abuse breeds abuse - of others, of self - and how difficult it is to break out of that cycle. Don't read it if you are easily offended, but do read it if you want to understand that 'dysfunctional' isn't just a word, but a sentence...