Oprah’s first book club pick of the year was (kind of) a repeat author. Her book club pick in June 2018 was Anthony Ray Hinton’s memoir called “The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life And Freedom On Death Row”, only the book was ghost written by Lara Love – AKA Mama Love who would be Oprah’s book club pick six years later with her own incarceration memoir.

This is a success story – a suburban soccer-mom in a million dollar house with 4 kids who gets arrested for stealing her neighbors credit cards to fund her heroin addiction. Convicted of 32 felonies with a plea deal, she spends a minimal amount of time in jail and is given early release through a work program due to overcrowding. She becomes a ghost writer and her book is chosen for Oprah’s book club. Like I said, this is a success story, and yet the majority of the book focuses on her time in jail and struggles with the justice system – why is that?

I know I would throw myself in front of a bus to save each one of my boys. I would sacrifice my life for theirs, but I couldn’t stop using drugs for them. I don’t know how to reconcile those two truths.

Lara Love Hardin

The book begins with a short lead up, explaining the juxtaposition of her wealthy cul-de-sac life to a heroin addiction that is getting worse and worse. It’s a double life and it’s about to come crumbling down, as most double lives do. This part for me, was cut short. I wanted more background, more insight to how she got to that point and I’m sure there are some exciting stories around living this double life. But almost immediately, she’s arrested, with her husband and their one common child is taken by Children Family Services or CFS. Her three other children live with their dad, her former husband. From there it’s straight to jail. 

Jail becomes a cosy place to detox, and the way she describes it, it doesn’t really sound so bad. The women take care of each other and real friendships start to form. When she’s released on bail and goes straight back to heroin, along with Mama love, we get the feeling that jail actually is a better place for her. So the struggle isn’t really that real, it’s more helpful than anything else. And if anything, I don’t think that’s what the American prison system is known for. But then again, she specifies several times that this was jail and not prison. So maybe jail is a cozy sorority and prison is the nightmare you see in movies? I’ve never been to either, I can only assume with the information I am given. 

I thought what I craved was approval and praise, but it’s simpler than that. I craved acceptance. For all the different versions of me I have been, and all the many lives I have lived.

Lara Love Hardin

The majority of this book focuses on her struggle with the justice system, the runnings in jail and getting clean is a side note that is almost made to look easy. In a book called “the many lives of mama love” I would expect more “jack of all trades” and not just a master of getting out of jail. This focuses on one life, and it’s the one that went to jail. Why was all the focus laid there? It’s called a memoir of lying, stealing, writing and healing – but those things are just the bookends to an otherwise long story about her time behind bars. The focus felt misguided to me. I wanted to see the lying and stealing, I wanted to ride along through all of it and I felt a little shortchanged. 

I still loved the book – don’t get me wrong. All the parts it delivers, it delivers well and the writing flows easily off the page. But after she get’s early release and she starts to describe an impossible justice system that is rigged to make you fail – she soars! Gone are all the drug tests and court appointments. She’s off probation and a book that she ghost wrote is picked for Oprah’s book club and her kid is back home. Again, I get the feeling that it was easy. Or maybe the book should have been called “The luckiest woman alive” because that’s my takeaway. Because her memoir is now also picked as an Oprah’s book club pick. And has anyone ever had 2 of their books on this list? 

I enjoyed her story, I think she’s a great writer, but I think the title was misleading and I wish it went deeper into more areas or different sides of her life or the different lives she refers to, because I didn’t get the sense that she had any big epiphanies or changed very much. She took a degree in writing and she picked it back up again as a ghost writer after jail. It’s not that groundbreaking. Every chapter felt like a closing argument, like something profound needed to be said and the last four chapters I kept thinking it was the last, because the narrative sounded like it was rounding it up. It all felt very surface level. But on the surface, it floats well. To call it inspirational would be a disservice to people going through anything similar, as it’s as inspirational as reading the memoir of a lottery winner. It’s compusively readable, and it’s a fast read, so enjoy the short stint of Mama Love. ⭐⭐⭐⭐