Mermaid: A Memoir of Resilience
A starred review- In her hard-to-put-down, brutally honest memoir, Cronin writes about growing up, as one of 11 children, without having legs, and trying to get her chain-smoking mom, who gets shock treatments and takes lithium for her 'nervous breakdowns,' to tell her whether she took thalidomide during her 1960 pregnancy. It's easy to root for Cronin. She attests to her many foolish choices, from riding a bike without a helmet to dumping seemingly sweet boyfriends and drinking too much until she chooses sobriety at age 27. She is incredibly resilient and plucky. She doesn't cry in front of bullies who cruelly toss her down the school steps, and she skinny dips with her friends after removing her prosthetic legs, feeling like a mermaid in the water. As a girl, she dreamed of replacing the March of Dimes poster child because he 'was a boy everyone loved.' As a child, she tells people she longs to be a ballerina. But when she sees her grandmother's 'face go slack' at this pronouncement, she adds, 'Or a missionary nun in Africa.' Readers will want to cheer at the happy ending to this must-read for all memoir fans and everyone involved or interested in the lives of the disabled.'Karen Springen,Booklist Online