Surviving High Society by Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland

Product Description
To the outside world, Elizabeth Marvin Mulholland had it all. Adopted into a wealthy New England family, the young Elizabeth was afforded the luxury many people only realize in their dreams. She joined her family on lavish European vacations, lived in a finely decorated home, grew up in a world heavily infiltrated by power and money, and hob-knobbed with celebrities. As a close friend of Katherine Hepburn's niece, she gained an inside look into Katherine Hepburn's guarded inner life, which she details in Surviving High Society.
Her real life, however, was not the fantasy it seemed to others. Elizabeth grew up in a volatile household. Her adopted brother attempted to murder her mother and remained estranged in the decades to follow. Her father, who was her strongest ally, died suddenly when she was twenty-two. And, until her death, Elizabeth's mother used all means possible to exert control over her life. Her mother bounced Elizabeth in and out of psychiatric facilities and used her wealth to persuade doctors to keep Elizabeth locked up and medicated. Throughout, Elizabeth struggled to keep the pieces of her life together.

After her mother disinherits Elizabeth, she successfully seeks to find freedom and a life of her own away from her mother s ever-watchful gaze. Her life becomes a life without fantastic riches, filled with its own obstacles and triumphs. But it is now her life.

My thoughts
The author definitely has had a life that is worth writing about; being born out of wedlock, adopted into a rich family, losing her adopted father at a young age, having an abusive mother and a suicidal brother. I found Ms. Mulholland’s story an interesting one that and found her book to be a rich in detail as what is what like to live in such a world and how she overcame it. Oh, did I forget to tell you that her mother had her confined to a mental institution? With this and more, she explains how she was able to live a fairly normal life.