Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal

Author: Louise Stanger, Ed.D

With so many deaths in her Ms. Stanger’s family … she lost her father to suicide when she was seven, and also her grandparents to suicide … her husband died when he was only 45, and her infant boy died of SIDS … it is a great testament that she not only survived but flourishes as she tells in her book on not just flying but soaring.  Dr. Stanger has been a well-known addiction interventionist for many years.

In her amazing memoir, Dr. Stanger allows that she lives a life of recovery daily as she assists others in healing from addiction.  She has always retained the ability to hope and to jump across one hurdle after another, as she talks about her life and those who suffer from addictions: how to know if you need help, how to set up and follow through with an intervention for a loved one; how to make sure that long term sobriety takes for any addiction on to how to parent your child to recovery from addiction and how to partake of recovery.

As she chronicles her life, Dr. Stanger talks about how her childhood “entrenched in drama and crisis” made her grow into a person who thrives on intensity.”  She goes on to say that she also yearns for stability, consistency and serenity.

When she was 36, Dr. Stanger felt that she was about to die.  She had pneumonia.  But she was actually emotionally wrung out.  The Hazeldon Family Program in Minnesota is where she went to recover and she continues to recover every day.  She discusses triggers especially that of her baby’s death.

While Dr. Stanger has good reason to be proud of herself and her accomplishments I felt that I might be sitting at an AA or Al-Anon or ACOA meeting as I read her book.  The writing is good, the tone is upbeat, and this is a memoir, after all.  But I did not feel the prose was special, and I felt like I was reading a self-help book.  So, although Falling Up is a sincere and compelling read, I was not excited with it or about it.

Ratings are based on a 5-star scale 

Overall: 3

Review by Broad “A” 

We received a product to facilitate our review. All opinions are our own

DETAILS

• You can pick up this book on Amazon.com here: Falling Up: A Memoir of Renewal or at a bookseller near you.