Dear Debra Miller,
As an essayist myself — one enamored by the New Journalism and Joan Didion — I couldn’t resist reviewing your book when approached. Naturally, I’ve read Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream. Reading your side of this case brings nuance to a story so ingrained in the field’s canon.
I am taken by the following lines in your chapter “Mistrial:” “My mother was becoming Elaine’s confidence. On one occasion, Elaine found a bracelet on the floor of their car. Weeping, she called my mother, who rushed to Elaine’s rescue” (69).
In my adolescence, I unfortunately found myself ensnared in the social web of someone I’d soon learn was a compulsive liar. In this friendship, the girl I’d befriended fibbed about everything from acting gigs to college acceptances.
In one such web of lies, she fibbed about things I’d supposedly (but, of course, not actually) said about a mutual friend of ours. She tried to wedge the two of us apart so that we’d grow closer to her.
This isn’t to say that I was a perfect angel of a teenager, but rather to express empathy about being enraptured by these enigmatic personalities whose secrets can’t be seen at the surface level.
You write, “One of the qualities I always liked about my mom was that she adopted people, whom my brothers and I called her orphans” (135).
Two conflicting feelings arise here — emotions I felt during my adolescent friendship.
On one hand, I appreciate the fact that the girl tried to include other people — that she attempted to create a social circle.
On the other hand, it was for her own sense of self-importance and an ego-boost.
I’d like to think there’s room in our hearts to accept an amalgamation of both feelings, that both can be true or not true. That the stories I was told by my former friend were both true and untrue.
This is not, as some readers might expect, a memoir dedicated solely to the realm of true crime. Rather, it explores the relationship between mother and daughter. It explores power dynamics, caretaking, and compulsion.
It is complicated in the way that life is; law, morality, and the truths we decide for ourselves and others seldom agree with one another. Thank you for this.
Very sincerely,
Carlin Steere
FanMail/Interview Editor
Carlin Steere
