This memoir about being fathered by the 70s rock oddball and ‘pagan absurdist’ is an extraordinary tale of survival
hat famous Philip Larkin quote people reach for whenever they wish to convey just how detrimental parents can be towards their children reaches some kind of zenith here in Moon Unit Zappa’s extraordinary family memoir. This is a book that frequently takes the breath from the lungs, and leaves the reader with the conviction that Zappa’s complicated clan must surely have been among America’s most dysfunctional.
Moon realised quickly that hers was an atypical upbringing that she could only connect with at one remove, and sardonically. “Growing up, I was just like you,” she writes. “I had a rock star for a dad, two invisible camels for playmates, and daydreamed about my future following in Frank’s footsteps by helping people and making them laugh, only I’d be dressed like a nun.”at home, Moon did whatever she could to earn his attention.
The more errant Frank’s behaviour, the angrier her mother grew. This she took out on Moon, who remained utterly devoted to him regardless. Later in life, when he was ill with cancer, she writes: “I would trade my life for his.” Gail was discomfited by the adoration. Her daughter annoyed her. The book’s title is a reference to how her mother would mock her for daydreaming, and relations did not improve when Moon grew up. Later, Gail would execute her husband’s will in a way that would drive a wedge between the children that survives to this day.is somehow an unconscionably entertaining read. This is in no small part thanks to the prose.
By adulthood, she’s had thousands of hours of therapy in elusive pursuit of calm , and emerges from this mess as kind, reasonable and remarkably sane. This is tested, though, when Gail tells her that “we need to sell your house. You cost us $200,000 to raise you, and we have to pay for your father’s cancer treatment.” After he dies, Gail’s reaction is “quiet glee”.
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