TLC Book Tour: You All Grow Up and Leave Me

I love a good memoir, and Piper Weiss' account of growing up in New York City's upper class is interesting by itself.  But Weiss also recounts her relationship with her tennis coach, a man that she has fond memories of, but who (in a bizarre twist) attempts to abduct a young woman and commits suicide afterward.

Weiss does a great job of making me nostalgic for the early 90s, describing this time period and dropping pop culture references that I haven't thought of in a long while.  I could easily relate to Weiss and her need to fit in and have friends, the insecurities of a teenage girl.

Her private school, Park Avenue childhood isn't one that is familiar to me, yet Weiss is able to write of this lifestyle without making it seem as though her privilege made her better than anyone else.

This memoir of Weiss' life was interesting enough to me, and yet she also incorporates the real life saga of her tennis coach, Gary Wilensky, who coached her and other teenage girls.  His suicide after trying to abduct a teenage girl shocked Weiss, and now years later, she has decided to investigate what happened in the 1990s when she knew this man.  

Weiss' memoir made me feel as though the two of us could have been friends.  I could easily understand her interest in a portion of her adolescence that was never fully explained or disclosed to her, and how she wanted to know more about a person she was close to at one time.  Her portrayal of Gary Wilensky piqued my interest so that I have done some research myself into the events she described.  As a reader I love adding to my experience with a book by finding more ways to learn about them.

This is a memoir I will gladly recommend to friends.  It's interesting, easy to read, and Weiss is a person readers can relate to.




Thanks to TLC Book Tours for providing a copy of this book for my review.  All opinions expressed are, as always, my own.

For more information visit the HarperCollins website.