City of One: A Memoir
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Book Overview
City of One is a poignant and beautifully written memoir of childhood loss and its enduring meaning. Francine Cournos was three years old when her father died, and by the time she was eleven, her mother was dead of breast cancer. "I had been hurled over a cliff," she writes. "The irreversibility of what had happened crashed down on me; a nauseating wave of fear and a flood of tears followed. I didn't know who I was without my mother. What would fill the vast space left by the disappearance of this all-consuming relationship? How would I spend my time? What would I become?" In answering these questions, Dr. Cournos offers a sharply perceptive portrait of an injured child's inner life, and the moving-even exhilarating-story of the ways in which, after much struggle and with considerable help from others, that injured child living in a foster home grew to become a happy and successful adult. At once illuminating and heart stopping, City of One is an inspiring account of triumph over childhood adversity. "Eloquent and moving."-New York Times Book Review "Inspiring, insightful, and thoroughly engaging, offering hope and awareness to all who have experienced pivotal losses."-Kirkus Reviews "City of One is extraordinarily moving. It is handled with a remarkable honesty and sensitivity. This is redemptive work because it leaves us with a sense of admiration for the courage of the human spirit."-Jonathan Kozol, Author of Amazing Grace "From tragic to inspirational, City of One is an impressive lesson in one woman's ability to endure."
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0595414982
ISBN13:9780595414987
Release Date:October 2006
Publisher:iUniverse
Length:254 Pages
Weight:0.85 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.8" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
moving and brave
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
This book moved and enlightened me. Cournos' story of surviving what every child fears most--the loss of both her parents--is raw, vivid, and remarkably compassionate given that she became a foster child through willful neglect on the part of her extended family. Cournos succeeds in transforming her own particular journey into a roadmap for others who want or need to understand what it is to be an orphan. Brave and beautifully done!
Excellent knowlege of Foster Care system and loss of family.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
As a psychiatric social worker this book gives an excellent perspective on the foster care system, how we would knew it and what it has become. In addition the book Dr.Cournos writes sheds an enormous light on the alienation of family and the reasons that alienation might occurr. It was a sad story with a shinning light ending.
A compelling and touching memoir
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
It didn't occur to me that I would be so touched by Francine Cournos's book. I have an interest in child welfare issues, which is why I read it. She deals with a much bigger issue than foster care -- she writes about the voluminous effect that the loss of parents can have on a child throughout his or her life. Brava, Dr. Cournos. Thank you for sharing your life with us. This is a must-read for anyone who works with children in any arena.
Dr. Cournos' memoir gives voice to the effects of early loss
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
As a writer, and as someone whose own experiences of childhood loss and its aftereffects closely parallel those of Dr. Cournos, I found City of One both deeply moving and comforting. We who have the hole where the loving parent should be, we who deal with the myth and the anger and the quest for wholeness, understand every word. Not only does Dr. Cournos evoke the pain of the loss, but her honesty and her search for the strengths that can come from a tragic early life goes beyond judgment and pathology. It goes to the things that define our lifelong sense of who we are. I highly recommend this memoir to anyone who wants to understand or who struggles with these issues.
This book helped me,as a foster child, understand so much.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
I am not only a reader of this book, but the author's "foster" sister. This book helps to show how five different children brought together by different circumstances, yet raised as siblings, will develop so differently. The way the passages went from exlpaining why she felt the way she did as a child, when she later understood much more as an adult was deeply moving. She was able to do so much to help others yet unable to help her own circumstances. I feel this book is very important to those who have been lost and feel there is no end in site. People still take childrens loss and have trouble dealing and understanding it. To help a child, to nuture and make that child feel loved and special is every persons job. I am a very poor reader, but found this book riveting and was unable to put it down, until I completed it. The book was written so the reading was easy and the words flowed. This book is for adults and children both. It shows when you allow yourself to feel worthy of love and open enough to share even your horrors with one person, only then you can start to heal. I lived with and loved her yet never knew what was going in the mind of my sister, how sad. How sad it must have been in "A City of One".
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