Terry is not a cheerful book. It is a brutal account of Teresa McGovern's fatal addiction to alcohol written by her father, former South Dakota Senator George McGovern. McGovern clearly and forcefully illustrates the impact an addiction can have a family, and vice versa. McGovern's own recollections are fortified by interviews with friends and family members, letters, and Terry's own journal entries. One can only imagine the painstaking effort that went into the reconstruction of Terry McGovern's inner world.
Terry begins at the end.
Chapter one sets the stage the night Terry McGovern died. She was found frozen in a snow bank after a night of heavy drinking, and McGovern provides the reader with a stream of consciousness around this event. What I regret is her slowly developing death and the feeling that I could have done more to prevent it. Chapter two begins at the beginning. McGovern explores the influence of genetics and early socialization in Terry's emotional makeup.