Slow Motion: A True Story

In her early twenties, author Dani Shapiro got romantically involved with a wealthy, narcissistic, married lawyer. She dropped out of Sarah Lawrence to be at his beck and call, and she enjoyed the luxurious gifts he bestowed upon her. To deaden her yeshiva-trained conscience, she drank and abused substances. All this went on with no end in sight until her parents were in an automobile accident. This abrupt tragedy forced her to reconsider her relationships and way of life.

Slow Motion is a little slow moving, as Shapiro recounts endless alcohol-soaked evenings and strained family relationships. She does come across as a bit of a spoiled brat. Still, this is a vivid story of one woman’s downward spiral and her hard-won redemption.

The earlier book I read by Dani Shapiro was a novel, but this turned out to be a memoir. During the course of reading this I discovered that she has written another, more recent memoir (Inheritance, in which she learned through routine DNA testing that the man she thought was her father was not actually her biological father). This memoir relates to a much earlier time, although her father plays an important role here, too.

Dani is in her early 20's. She had dropped out of college after a couple of years, ostensibly to pursue an acting/modeling career, but she also became the kept mistress of a much older fabulously wealthy married man, who also happened to be the stepfather of one of her best college friends. There is much cocaine and show more drinking involved in her life, meals at expensive restaurants (with purging afterwards), travel around the world, jewelry, furs etc. You get the picture--a charmed life indeed.

As the memoir opens, Dani is at a health and beauty spa on the West Coast when she receives a phone call notifying her that her parents have been in a serious car accident and may not survive. She must return to New Jersey at once. As she heads home, and in the days afterwards, she begins to rethink the course her life is taking. "I want to start my life over again, but I don't know how."

The book does a good job of portraying a life gone off the tracks, a self-destructive life, and what it took to turn that life around. Again, although this sort of thing is not my usual fare, it was a decent read.

3 stars show less

A great narrative tale about how tragedy can jolt you out of a downward spiral of bad decisions and steer you back to your true self.