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The Three of Us: A Family Story | 
 enlarge | Author: Julia Blackburn
Publisher: Pantheon
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $13.00
You Save: $13.00 (50%)
New (35) Used (10) from $10.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 85571
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375424741
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780375424748
ASIN: 0375424741
Publication Date: July 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
This is the story of three people: Julia Blackburn; her father, Thomas; and her mother, Rosalie. Thomas was a poet and an alcoholic who for many years was addicted to barbiturates, which would often make him violent. Rosalie, a painter, was sociable and flirtatious; she treated Julia as her sister, her confidante, and eventually as her deadly sexual rival. After Julia’s parents divorced, her mother took in lodgers, always men, on the understanding that each would become her lover. When one of the lodgers started an affair with Julia, Rosalie was devastated; when he later committed suicide, the relationship between mother and daughter was shattered irrevocable.
Or so it seems until the spring of 1999, when Rosalie, diagnosed with leukemia, came to live with Julia for the last month of her life. At last the spell was broken, and they were able to talk with an ease they had never known before. When she was very near the end, Rosalie said to Julia, “Now you will be able to write about me, won’t you?”
The Three of Us is a memoir like no other you have read. The writing is magical, and the story is extraordinary, not only for its honest but also for its humor and its lack of blame. Ultimately, this is a tale of redemption, a love story. It will surely become one of the classics of that genre.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Reader Makes Four September 23, 2008
This book was mentioned in a Harper's review about memoirs in general, and given high marks for its unusual format and content I bought it to study the writing technique and couldn't put it down. The present and past are deftly woven into a thickly textured family drama that drew me in from the very first page. The diary entries are emphatically apropos, and along with the family pictures create a sense of intimacy with the characters and scenario that feels almost like being part of the family. The story was rough, but the telling of it rang true and lent a certain stability to the challenging terrain. I highly recommend this book.
Is this woman my twin? September 7, 2008
I loved this book and all it's honesty. I've heard it said that we read to know that we are not alone. I do believe this may be true. This book stunned me so because I had a mother who was jealous and envious of me and I felt so alone, and yet she did love me too. Just as in this woman's experience, I only got the mother who adored and truly showed her love for me when she became ill and I tended to her in the last year or so of her life. This woman's account of her relationship with both her parents is relayed so honestly that I must praise her writing as well as her sharing her life with the rest of us.
Dysfunctional Three September 7, 2008
This book reminded me of "Running With Scissors" in some ways. The narrator is the daughter of an artisitic ,sex- obbessed mother and an abusive English teacher, poet father in the UK. I found it surprising that the author was able to grow up into a functining adult. It's a darkly, disturbing story.
 A waste of time August 30, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Three of Us is a tawdry mess of sex and strange people written to no purpose. I think the author doesn't really understand what went on in her young life to this day. The book drags on in an uninteresting manner until the reader wants to put the book down before the end.
 disappointing August 12, 2008
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
After the big buildup, I found it disappointing...the mother farting and laughing in the tub watching the gas bubbles lift to the surface...grossed me out....I'd prefer to read about a nasty "serial" killer; at least the serial killer's more entertaining. And as for one chooses one's parents..what inane self-serving dribble...I think the horror is that with "losers" like this you share a common bloodline...Yipes...If only they had lipo of the soul...Why do some people feel they have to justify their past; when there is no justification for some sadistic acts perpertrated upon a basically defenseless child....simply get away from them...
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