Unflinchingly honest, moving, and funny, "Half a Life" shows how a girl without means or promise and with only a loving mother, chutzpah, a bit of fraud, and a lot of luck turned into somebody. In 1964 the Ciment family left middle-class Montreal for the fringe desert communities of Los Angeles, where their always unstable father lost the last vestiges of his sanity. Terrified and broke, in a world he could neither understand nor control, he came apart. When the family finally threw him out, he lived for weeks in his car at ...
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Unflinchingly honest, moving, and funny, "Half a Life" shows how a girl without means or promise and with only a loving mother, chutzpah, a bit of fraud, and a lot of luck turned into somebody. In 1964 the Ciment family left middle-class Montreal for the fringe desert communities of Los Angeles, where their always unstable father lost the last vestiges of his sanity. Terrified and broke, in a world he could neither understand nor control, he came apart. When the family finally threw him out, he lived for weeks in his car at the foot of their driveway. Ciment turned herself into a girl for whom a father is unnecessary-a tough girl who survived any way she could. She and her brother Jack helped support the family by working for a shady market researcher, quickly learning to supply their own answers to burning questions like, "Did we like Swanson TV dinners? If so, why? On a scale of one to ten, how would we rate the new Talking Barbie? Arrow wax? Dr. Ross's dog food?" She became a gang girl, a professional forger, and a Times Square porn model. Using a friend's SAT score she cheated her way into art school, and seduced and eventually married her art teacher, a married man thirty years her senior. By turns comic, tragic, and heartrending, "Half a Life" is a bold, unsentimental portrait of the artist as a girl from nowhere, making herself up from scratch, acting up, and finally overcoming the consequences of being the child of a father incapable of love and responsibility.
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Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $9.54, very good condition, Sold by Bradley's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Florence, CO, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good in Very Good jacket. Book Crown, 1996 Hard Cover As New/As New. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. NY Crown Publishing Group, 0-517-70171-5. Hard Cover. Very Good/
Add this copy of Half a Life: a Memoir to cart. $10.17, very good condition, Sold by UHR Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hollis Center, ME, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown Publishers, Inc..
Add this copy of Half a Life: A Memoir to cart. $11.08, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 1997 by Anchor Books.
Add this copy of Half a Life: a Memoir to cart. $11.50, very good condition, Sold by Priceless Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Urbana, IL, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by New York: Crown, 1996.
Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $12.95, very good condition, Sold by Book Alley rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Pasadena, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown.
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Very Good jacket. First Edition. First Edition. Very Good in Very Good unclipped dust jacket. Gently used with NO markings in text; binding is tight. Pasadena's finest independent new and used bookstore.
Add this copy of Half a Life: a Memoir to cart. $14.00, like new condition, Sold by Garys Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Apache Junction, AZ, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown Publishers, Inc..
Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $14.00, very good condition, Sold by Friends of the Phoenix Library rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Phoenix, AZ, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Anchor Books.
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Very good. First Edition. 1st paperback edition. Clean unmarked. 100% of this purchase will support literacy programs through a nonprofit organization!
Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $15.00, very good condition, Sold by Crabtree's Collection rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sebago, ME, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown.
Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $20.00, like new condition, Sold by The Wild Muse rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Granville, NY, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown Publishers.
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Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo. Signed by Author SIGNED First edition. Hard cover in dust jacket. Published NY: Crown, 1996, first printing. Signed by author on half-title. Her third book. Fine in fine dust jacket.
Add this copy of Half a Life to cart. $20.00, very good condition, Sold by Ken Lopez Bookseller, ABAA rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hadley, MA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Crown.
