THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110022
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JEFF ARMSTRONG
LENGTH: 76 lines
IN DECEMBER 1994, former U.S. presidential candidate George McGovern's 45-year-old daughter Terry froze to death when she fell intoxicated into the Wisconsin snow, ending an almost 30-year struggle with depression and alcoholism.
``Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle With Alcoholism'' is McGovern's short, straightforward account of his daughter's life, from the loving, intelligent perspective of a father striving to learn - and struggling to understand. McGovern presents a poignant, personal celebration of his daughter's life against an informed, but still developing, understanding of her death.
In this age of ``tell-all'' books and tabloid/talk media, McGovern, the former South Dakota senator who was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972, makes clear his motives for writing this book:
``She died as over 100,000 American alcoholics do every year. The difference with Terry was that she was the daughter of a prominent family. She had campaigned for her Dad . . .. I could not have escaped, even if I had tried, the avalanche of reporters' questions. Immediately, I decided to respond openly and candidly. . . . I wanted both her life and her death to be understood and appreciated - and I wanted others to gain from the lessons her life can teach us.''
Teresa Jane McGovern was the middle child of George and Eleanor McGovern's five children. She was a bright, sensitive, caring child within a close, loving family. By her teens, however, she had fallen victim to depression and substance abuse. At 13 she experimented with alcohol, and at 15 she became pregnant from her first sexual experience and had a traumatic abortion.
The private world of 19-year-old Terry collided dramatically with her father's public life. Invited to Los Angeles to make a speech honoring his friend Robert Kennedy a month after his murder, McGovern picked up the morning newspaper to prepare for reporters' questions. One headline read: ``Senator's Daughter Arrested on Drug Charge.'' It was Terry.
McGovern chronicles Terry's adult life as a vicious cycle of addiction, recovery and relapse. She fought her alcoholism in a string of hospitals, clinics, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, detox centers and recovery houses. For her severe depression, she tried medication, counseling, years of daily psychoanalysis and risky electric-shock therapy.
McGovern pieces together his daughter's story from memory; interviews with family, friends and caretakers; police and hospital reports and Terry's own revealing journals. The strength of the book is McGovern's intelligent, restrained candor.
The former professor doesn't pretend to have all the answers; the career politician doesn't have a platform to push. The death of his child, ``sad beyond any measure that I had imagined,'' has brought him to a place where he strives to simply learn, understand and share.
McGovern discusses the merits of the AA 12-step program, and the role spirituality may play in the successful recovery process. He mentions genetic predisposition to substance abuse and mental illness, citing alcoholism on his side of the family and the depression of his wife, especially after Terry's birth, and in her family. And he gives his thoughts on the cause-and-effect relationship between alcohol and depression.
Yet while ``Terry'' is a thoughtful, intelligent book, it is foremost a labor of love, a father's love. McGovern seems proud to share his daughter's private journals. He so badly wants us to know what a special person she was - bright, sensitive, caring, articulate and, most important, persistent and courageous in fighting her twin demons. The fact that someone like her, with so much promise, support and opportunity for treatment, could lose the fight has given him a real appreciation of the power of her diseases - one he wants to convey to us all. MEMO: Jeff Armstrong is a free-lance writer and sales manager at
WGNT-TV. He lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: BOOK REVIEW
``Terry: My Daughter's Life-and-Death Struggle With Alcoholism''
Author: George McGovern
Publisher: Villard. 208 pp.
Price: $21 by CNB