Mind Lost, Mind Found

Stan and JoAnn DeJoria
Smith
ISBN Number: 
978-0971540538
Genre: 
Contemporary

JoAnn DeJoria has it all – her gorgeous husband Bob, her beautiful daughter Heather, a successful business, and a gorgeous house on the Malibu coast.  They have a circle of hard partying friends, and enjoy a life of money, drugs, and privilege.

Everything crashes when Bob unexpectedly dies.  JoAnn is now alone, responsible for raising their daughter, running their business, and trying to put her life back together.  The subsequent years are filled with parties, boyfriends, business betrayals and babysitting woes, viewed through an alcohol and drug-induced haze.  JoAnn’s life becomes unstable.  Her business is her primary support; yet employees cheat her and encourage her to sell the business at a rock bottom price.  Heather is shuttled among different sitters, always cheerful and forgiving.  JoAnn is heartbroken over Heather, but her situation demands that Heather live with others.  Her male relationships fluctuate from casual flings to proposals of marriage; JoAnn moves on, forsaking permanence and commitment for a nomadic existence.

While anyone’s life story is worthy of respect, JoAnn tells a repetitive saga which circles around the same themes.  While locations change from Los Angeles to Paris to Santa Cruz to Hawaii, her relationships with her daughter and the men in her life seesaw between happiness and contentment to loss and disappointment.  JoAnn writes with a directness and descriptiveness that keep your interest.  She weaves a story that starts with success, drops to bitter disappointment and comes back to her life threads being woven together again.

Victoria Z. Burg