BROKEN PIECES

A debut author reflects on childhood trauma, misguided love, and self-discovery in this memoir.

Gibbs opens the work with a description of her childhood in 1950s-era Louisville, Kentucky. As one of six siblings, she grew up with loving parents, enjoying a home life that seemed idyllic—with one glaring exception: the relentless bullying of her older brother, “Packy.” Seventeen years her elder, Packy had a genius-level IQ, but his social ineptitude would eventually lead to his institutionalization in Kentucky’s Central State Mental Hospital, where he would die under mysterious circumstances after falling from an adjacent water tower. This traumatic death of a figure associated with so many of the author’s worst childhood memories precipitated an emotional crisis that corresponded with her own transition from adolescence into adulthood. Openly discussing her evolving sexuality in the 1960s as she left her culturally conservative home, Gibbs devotes significant attention to her relationship with Dick, a musician and student at Northwestern University. Unsure of her own personal identity, Gibbs followed Dick to California, where they joined “yogis and hippies” in an Ananda commune headed by the controversial Hindu spiritualist Swami Kriyananda. Dick was infatuated with the rustic lifestyle, but the author longed to forge her own path in a big city and was uncomfortable with Kriyananda’s sexual advances. Even after leaving the commune and having children with Dick, she harbored secret intentions to divorce him. The final third of the book addresses Gibbs’ love of the stage as she discusses winning roles in theatrical productions, separating from Dick, and remarrying a fellow actor named Bruno. Ending in 1995, the memoir doesn’t provide details on Gibbs’ 21st-century successes as a screenwriter and actress in feature films like Brick (2005). This work centers on her personal journey to self-discovery as a young woman; it’s a deeply personal read (the author doesn’t shy away from detailing her sexual liberation, often in graphic detail) that’s often literary in its self-reflection.

An intimate, poignant coming-of-age story.