High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips

I know, I know. This book was published in 2009 and I am just now getting around to reading it. I wasn't planning on purchasing this book. I was perusing the aisle and Barnes & Noble when I spotted it. There she was. On the discount table. Hardback and discounted, so I grabbed and I purchased because I love reading memoirs. The juicier, the better.

Laura Mackenzie Philips was born in 1959, her father the late John Phillips, rock and roll royalty, and the lead singer of The Mamas & the Papas. Her life was destined for excess. She did drugs and partied with her father and his famous friends. Her rise to stardom began when she was cast in the movie American Graffiti. This movie helped her to stand out on her own and forge a career for herself. Her rise was not angelic or sober. I enjoyed reading about Mackenzie's life. This book is crazy and I like crazy. There were times when I wondered if I could believe what I was reading. She had an incestual relationship with her father, which threw me for a loop because from the second I read this, it was very confusing. The circumstances that lead up to the relationship are not brutal or repulsive. It seems as if they fell into each other. He did not force her. She was an adult. She was married. They would get wasted and she would wake up with her panties around her ankles. This book has some pretty heavy scenes and I am surprised that Mackenzie survived all of her drug use and abuse. This book, like most books that reveal a tumultuos life, will keep you turning the pages. The well-rounded reader should have this in their collection.

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