132. The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell

The Imposter's Daughter by Laurie Sandell (Canada) - (US)
Pages: 247
Ages: 18+
Finished: May 30, 2011
First Published: 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: graphic memoir, non-fiction,
Rating: 4/5


First sentence:

Whenever my father went out of town, he had the mail stopped.

Acquired: Won a copy from bookfool at Bookfoolery and Babble.

Reason for Reading:  I love memoirs; I love graphic memoirs.  The shady dealings grabbed my interest.

The author is a journalist who mostly spends her time interviewing celebrities.  She is currently an editor for a well-known fashion magazine and has written for many well-known magazines.  She grew up very close to her father who was an awe inspiring man (sometimes fear inducing) who was a former Green Beret, fought in Viet Nam, held 4 prestigious diplomas and spoke several languages.  But when Laurie went to college and tried to apply for a credit card she was denied and found out that she was in debt to several credit card companies.  She had her two younger sisters look as well and they found the same thing.  Thus began the strange story of founding out that her father was not who he said he was; his diplomas were lies; his family history was lies; he never fought in Viet Nam and so on.  This broke down Laurie's own self worth and she set about to uncover her father's lies and secrets, hence the writing of this book.
This was a truly fascinating story.  In today's society it is actually easy to imagine someone living an undercover life whether it be as a member of a terrorist cell or a foreign spy just from recent headline news.  But to imagine it actually being someone you know and love is very scary and Laurie does a wonderful job of describing her feelings versus those of her family who never really get behind her in exposing her father, whatever he is.  Laurie Sandell tells the story with emotion, humour, wit and though she goes to dark places at times in her life she manages to keep the overall tone of the book light.  I really enjoyed the read.  The only thing that bothered me a bit was that I didn't understand the author's need to draw so many nude portraits of herself.  There was an excessive amount of full frontal bath and bed scenes for my tastes, but ymmv.