Memoir review: "Fathermothergod"

Most of us have memories of a childhood that included sprained ankles, a broken arm or a bad case of the flu. We were taken to the doctor, bandaged or tucked into bed with a cup of soup. Growing up in Minnesota in a family that practiced Christian Science, Lucia Greenhouse remembered only pain coupled with shame, for in Christian Science one does not have "symptoms" or "illness." This means if you are throwing up, or you need eyeglasses, or have a headache, it is because you do not have the proper outlook on life to rise above your physical "appearance of error."

In Greenhouse's intrepid memoir, "Fathermothergod: My Journey Out of Christian Science," she reveals her skepticism of a religion where one is expected to be perfect and to rise above bodily illness with the power of the mind. Despite a large extended family and a big group of friends, Greenhouse saw herself and her two siblings as being on the outside looking in at "regular" families who attended the Lutheran church and whose fathers worked at General Mills.

When Greenhouse was in eighth grade her parents moved the family to London to become more active in the Christian Science community and to support "the Cause." It was here that Greenhouse slowly began to reveal her doubts to her immediate family.

Later, as a young woman living in New York City, Greenhouse visited her parents at Christmas and found her mother severely ill. But true to her religion, her mother refused to acknowledge any physical distress. Torn between respecting her mother's religious wishes and confronting her father, and desperately worrying about her mother's health, Greenhouse and her siblings decided to support her mother's decision to attempt to heal through faith. Greenhouse's doubt is obvious, though, and her parents alternately shun her and remind her that she must be faithful to the family, leaving Greenhouse bitter at being " ... used and abused by the secrecy."

Within nine distressing months, Greenhouse's mother died a traumatic and painful death in a hospital, finally accepting medical intervention but only after it was too late to help. Greenhouse is left with guilt, shame and the resentment of her extended family.

With "Fathermothergod," she has written a courageous and finely crafted portrait of a young woman struggling with her family, her faith and that awkward space between being a child and growing into adulthood.

Meganne Fabrega is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.