Review: The Way I See It

The Way I See It by Patti Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would say this is more memoir than autobiography; heck she wrote it like at age 40 and it is really about her growing up and specifically in a dysfunctional Reagan family. Music fans may enjoy in the insights into Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) who she had a relationship, as well as in the 1970s, living with Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon. (Together they co-wrote the song "I Wish You Peace" which appeared on Eagles album One of These Nights and that story is here.) She is quite candid about her love life as well as getting her tubes tied and then untied. In this bare and forthcoming telling, she is also an open book about her own substance abuse, which started with the prescription pills from the family medicine cabinet abused by her mother while Nancy Reagan hypocritically promoted "Just Say No". This was the mother verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive to her, which in a complex way she appreciated much more than the cold aloofness of her remote father, Ronald Reagan.

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