High Upon Reading

Woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible bloody nose and blamed it on all the coke. No no no I would never do that, It was all the dehydrating cocoa cola I drank yesterday to stay awake. I've never understood the whole glamor of a drug habit, which I didn't think could be glamorous. Then I concluded the only way it could possibly be glamorous is if your last name is Phillips and you've survived years of drug use with Mick Jagger and the likes, become sober, write a book about it and appear on Oprah.

Yes, if you haven't guessed I'm speaking of Mackenzie Phillips, John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas' daughter. After watching her honest appearance on Oprah I undoubtedly decided to read her autobiography knowing it was going to be a hefty read. Some of the highlights or should I say low lights of her life were: at age 10 she tried her first sniff of coke. Lost her virginity before age 14 and was raped at age 14. Had sex with Mick Jagger when she was 18. Started a long incestuous relationship with her father at age 19. You name it and the list goes on.

Mackenzie had a lot to tell in the fair amount of pages of her autobiography and I could feel her need to quickly put the painful events on the pages. Some of these moments and especially the painful moments I thought were rushed into sentences and spared important details. I don't mean she had to go into in depth detail about what she did with her father but she could have gone into more detail about what she thought and felt about this abnormal relationship. Overall her stories and life alone are a great reason to pick this book up and urge others to read because I hate to say it under her poor circumstances but its an entertaining read. It goes the deepest and closest I've ever seen or read about the glamorous and horrifying reality of growing up with fame, power and money. And who doesn't want to know the true realities of it when all we get a glimpse of are paparazzi shooting impersonal zoom lens photos of celebrities.