Book Review: Come Back

How does an L.A. honor student from a loving home end up shooting speedballs in rural Indiana?

What does a desperate mother do when she learns that her runaway daughter has been living a secret live for more than a year?

Come Back, a joint effort and true story told by Claire Fontaine and her daughter, Mia, chronicles Mia's journey from being molested by her father as a young child and battling severe drug addictions as a teen. The story is told in sections alternating between mother and daughter, as Claire tries to help her daughter in every way she can and Mia suffers in rehabilitation.

Both authors do a great job of integrating straightforward narration along with artful reflection. The book is very raw-- the first person narration from both mother and daughter create a very intense mood and make the book extremely difficult to put down.

The memoir tackles some difficult issues-- sexual abuse, drug abuse, rehabilitation, and familial strife. I don't think these topics could have been captured more effectively in any other mode of narration. The juxtaposition of the teenager's personal journey and her mother's reactions and desperate need to help paint a very complete picture of the issues. The book is an excellent representation of drug abusers as more than just screw-ups-- Come Back shows that there is a whole host of factors that can turn a happy child into someone under the spell of hard drugs.

I was introduced to this book by one of the authors, Mia Fontaine, who spoke at a leadership seminar I attended. It was all the more interesting to read Come Back after having seen the main character in blue jeans and a plain back sweater, a normal woman who attended Georgetown University and wrote for National Geographic and the New York Times. To find out that such a successful woman lived a good portion of her life living in a van or in rehab really preached that you never have an idea of what someone is going through or has gone through.

Come Back is an excellent, quick read for anyone interested in learning about rehab or drug abuse, or just for someone who wants a captivating story. While the writing is not Nobel prize worthy, it's still extremely good and works very well for the story being told. I'd give Come Back 4/5 stars.