The Sky Isn't Visible from Here: A Memoir - Paperback

by Felicia C. Sullivan (Author)

Days before Felicia Sullivan graduated from college, her mother disappeared; she hasn't been heard from in more than twelve years. It was possibly the last betrayal her mother, a beautiful, volatile, deceitful drug addict, would add to those that built their relationship, which subjected Felicia to a nightmare childhood on the toughest streets of 1980s Brooklyn. Growing up in the close company of dealers, users, and a host of unsavory characters, Felicia became her mother's keeper at a shockingly young age--getting her to the hospital after her overdoses, enduring her cruelty and narcissistic rages, and accepting the abuse or indifference of numerous so-called stepfathers. Years later, damaged and ashamed of her past, Felicia invented a new, brutally hard-partying persona to show to the world: she became her mother.

Affecting, honest, and utterly extraordinary, The Sky Isn't Visible from Here is a book about secrets and forgiveness--the story of a young woman unraveling . . . and then putting her life back together again.

Front Jacket

Felicia Sullivan's mother disappeared on the night Sullivan graduated from college and has not been seen or heard from in the ten years since. Sullivan, who grew up on the tough streets of Brooklyn in the 1980s, now looks back on her childhood-lived among drug dealers, users, substitute fathers, and a host of unsavory characters. Ever the responsible child, Sullivan became her mother's keeper, taking her to the hospital when she overdoses, withstanding her narcissistic rages, succombing to the abuse or indifference of so-called stepfathers, and always wondering why her mother would never reveal the truth about the father she'd never met. But then, Sullivan's volatile, beautiful, deceitful, drug-addicted mother altered the truth in many cruel ways.
Ashamed of her past, Sullivan invented a persona to show the world. But keeping up a facade has its price, and before she knew it, she, too, was snorting coke in nightclubs, throwing back shots of tequila like candy, and eventually taking a leave of absence from her Ivy League graduate program. In fact, she had become her mother.
A book about secrets and forgiveness, "The Sky Isn't Visible from Here "is also the story of a young woman unraveling-and then putting her life back together again.