And Laura, hoping for a quick prescription fix, must commit to weekly sessions that will stretch into five years. As a newly-minted therapist eager to "save the world," Gildiner realizes she must work slowly to engage with Laura and earn her trust. She is attractive and smart, but trapped in a relationship with an abusive male not unlike her father. Laura (all the names and identifying details have been altered) is her first patient, a young woman who has herpes and can't reduce the stress in her life enough to heal from the virus. We are invited into her office and allowed to share in the exploration of childhoods that no one deserved and weaker victims would not have survived. She shares the stories of five of her clients in "Good Morning, Monster." These are not written with academic detachment but with empathy, deep caring and the occasional wit that her memoirs displayed. All were bestsellers, as was her novel, "Seduction."īut before becoming a writer, Gildiner spent 25 years in private practice as a clinical psychologist. She followed it with her teen years, "After the Falls," and her coming of age at U of T and Oxford in the 60s ("Coming Ashore"). My family read it and laughed aloud that Christmas. "Too Close to the Falls," about her early life as the daughter of a pharmacist in Niagara Falls, New York, was published in 1999. "Good Morning, Monster: five heroic journeys to recovery", Catherine Gildiner, Viking, 359 p., $23.99 paperback, ebook and audiobook availableĬatherine Gildiner is best-known for her memoirs.
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