STRANGER IN MY BED

by Beverly with Frances Spatz Leighton Slater ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 1984

An amnesiac's tabloid-y story of her second, childish life--partly from brain damage, partly from ""hysteria."" Slater regains consciousness, after being struck by a car, knowing no one and almost nothing. ""l refused to nod for these silly fools. . . . I didn't know who they were and I didn't care. . . . Why did they keep bothering me?' She learns that when she curses--at husband Harold, daughter Joanie, son Stuart--she can get rid of people. ""But no matter what I did, the man they called Harold kept coming back. Why?"" She begs to go ""home""--an adventure. She regains some skills, to get privileges; learns about her previous life, as an uptight teacher of paramedics; tones herself down a little, to accommodate Harold's ideas of propriety, and reads a lot, so she won't appear a ""dummy."" There's a certain unsavory fascination, as well as something repellent, in Leighton's reconstruction: extroverted, exhibitionist, Slater doesn't really want to recover her past. She also likes the attention she gets as an amnesiac, though now we hear that she craves ""understanding."" Medical opinions attest to the case's authenticity, however it's been jazzed up.

Pub Date: June 18, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Arbor House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION