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Mayhem
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Health & Wellness, Addiction & Recovery
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Summary
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Mayhem by Sigrid Rausing, read by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
A searingly powerful memoir about the impact of addiction on a family.
In the summer of 2012 a woman named Eva was found dead in the London townhouse she shared with her husband, Hans K. Rausing. The couple had struggled with drug addiction for years, often under the glare of tabloid headlines. Now, writing with singular clarity and restraint the editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing, tries to make sense of what happened to her brother and his wife.
In Mayhem, she asks the difficult questions those close to the world of addiction must face. 'Who can help the addict, consumed by a shaming hunger, a need beyond control? There is no medicine: the drugs are the medicine. And who can help their families, so implicated in the self-destruction of the addict? Who can help when the very notion of 'help' becomes synonymous with an exercise of power; a familial police state; an end to freedom, in the addict's mind?'
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What listeners say about Mayhem
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bananarama
- 19-04-20
Fascinating and beautifully read
I didn't know anything about the story. I chose it because it is read by Maggie Gyllenhaal and she reads in a mesmerising lilt that I find very soothing yet compelling (I have also listened to her read The Bell Jar and also Anna Karenina). The memoir was fascinating, a sensitive and raw family insider account of a story ravaged by the media, like so many others. I've since been prompted to read more about the family online and am very glad I listened to this memoir first.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- mary lou
- 12-09-17
Haunting
Maggie Gyllenhaal superbly narrates this haunting and tragic story that leaves its mark on the listener
2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- emily kennedy
- 14-03-21
An interesting take on addiction
I loved that this was not a linear timeline, worth a read for sure, addiction affects the lives of all the family.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 01-12-20
Very poignant and beautifully read
A revealing insight into the experiences of families struggling with addiction. Beautifully written and beautifully read by Maggie Gyllenhaal.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- ania
- 07-01-20
Boring
The author clearly knows how to write but she also writes in a way that makes difficult for a reader to emotionaly connect with the story. The book is more a collection of her thoughts than an involving story. Also, the summary of the book is somehow misleading as it is more the story of the author than of her addicted brother. Great narrator though !
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Hannah
- 13-08-18
A classic
Exquisite writing. A sensitive, moving, dignified account of family tragedy. Silken threads unwind and draw you on to the end.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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- C law
- 22-03-21
stark elegy to lives lost to addiction
beautifully written, mournful homage to lives ruined by addiction. money doesn't buy everything.Read too sonorously.