Review by Booklist Review
Actress and musician Zappa, daughter of Frank, reveals early in this memoir that her middle name was her father's way of declaring their "foray into becoming a family unit." The unit eventually comprises four children and the volatile marriage of Frank and Gail. Life in their quirky house above Laurel Canyon is unconventional and chaotic, often teetering on the edge of dissolution. The family is close, but bonds wear thin from a litany of stressors, including Frank's absence and infidelity, financial ups and downs, and battles for control over the Zappa legacy and catalogue. Moon, a diarist since childhood, writes about her education, her surprise hit single with her father (1982's "Valley Girl"), her work on MTV and VH1, and her romantic life. Above all, she documents the intricacies of the unit, offering a loving, unflinching look at a legendary family of creatives.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this outstanding debut, Zappa chronicles her unconventional upbringing as the daughter of musician Frank Zappa. Born in 1967 L.A., Zappa reflects on being raised by parents who insisted she and her three siblings call them by their first names and taught them to use profanity. Though Zappa expresses ambivalence about the "chaotic, full-throttle" household of her youth (she was left naked in a room of strangers at two, then told to lighten up when she mentioned the episode to her mother as an adult), she writes rapturously of playing pretend with her siblings, and of the rare occasions when her father wasn't working and they listened to music together. (They recorded the 1982 hit "Valley Girl" together, though the song's success intensified existing tensions with Zappa's music producer mother.) Though Zappa resented her role as the family peacemaker, she reconciled with both of her parents before they died of cancer--her father in 1993, her mother in 2015--but surfed new waves of tumult when probate complications regarding her father's estate estranged her from her siblings. Zappa's unvarnished prose and resolve to capture the difficult and beautiful parts of her upbringing with equal clarity elevates this above other memoirs by the children of celebrities. It's a fascinating window into a complicated family. (Aug.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A memoir of a nonconformist life raised by rock-world icons Frank and Gail Zappa. In her introduction, Moon Unit Zappa facetiously promises that her autobiography will remind readers of their own life story--that is, if they had an iconoclastic rock star for a father and grew up in a "chaotic full-throttle household." It's not just the "misfits, sycophants and freeloaders" who hung out at the Zappa home in Laurel Canyon, California, she writes. "It seems like the whole world wants my daddy." She finally got Frank's undivided attention when, at 13, she unveiled her satirical "lazy, lyrical Valley accent," which Frank recorded in a memorable song. "Valley Girl," studded with Zappa's hilarious impersonations of vapid airheads, was a big radio hit, which garnered his daughter hate mail from Valley girls but also jump-started her performing career. The author recounts how she earned small roles in TV and movies and worked as a VJ for MTV and VH1. She describes attempting to supplant her father's eternal dominance with other charismatic leaders, acting coaches, and spiritual gurus, and she details her vital role in dealing with both parents' deaths from cancer. Other traumatic life experiences include her infant daughter's brush with death, an early divorce, unequal inheritances among the author and her siblings, and eventual family estrangement, with "family friend Steve Vai kindly acting as self-appointed mediator." Throughout, Zappa is candid about her dysfunctional upbringing, personal insecurities, parents' idiosyncrasies, and the foibles and insanities of the music business world, and she exhaustively catalogs her plentiful experiments with consumer spirituality and popular culture. In her adult life in Taos, New Mexico, Zappa pursues work as a writer and podcaster, and she has learned, as a chapter title reads, "How To Heal in a Hundred Steps." Life as a Zappa entails both heartbreak and triumph. Interesting reading for fans. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
