Lazarus, What's Next?
By Renate Horney
This book is available on the Internet from Amazon.com or send $15.00 directly to: Renate Horney Patterson, 3401-B Via Serena, Laguna Woods, CA 92653
Book Content:
Renate's guardian angel, Lazarus, obviously has a great sense of humor-he filled her life with wrenching changes and hilarious adventures. Her mother, Dr. Karen Horney, taught Renate to rely on her own wits, and this she has done with a vengeance. Courtesy of Hitler, Renate spent thirty-four colorful years in Mexico, the love of her life. There she raised her three children, and there her fateful first marriage to a German movie director eroded into divorce. Undeterred , the twice-widowed Renate still seeks out adventure and challenge. Lazarus What's Next?
Reader Comments:
Once I started reading "Lazarus What's Next?" I couldn't put it down. I wish it had been twice as long, I wanted more. You've had the most extraordinary life and I loved the warm, funny and honest voice you found to tell your tale. It was happy, and sad and profound all at once. I laughed out loud --Sara Rimer, writer for the New York Times.
The Book is wonderful. It has all the elements of a page-turner, spontaneity, thoughtfulness, honesty and the joy of life. --Jeanne Frank, writer
I've read countless biographies and memoirs but I found yours to be absolutely spellbinding. I literally could not put it down, enjoying every moment. --Laurie Linda
Book Review: The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, March 2000.
This small book by the youngest of our founder's three
daughters is significant for a variety of reasons. Before having read it
I expected it to be the author's autobiography, and therefore to contain
material about her mother that had already been covered in detailed tomes
that most are familiar with. This, indeed it does do, but in ways that differ.
No attempt at hagiography here, as has been the case in some earlier works.
Her stance as that of a daughter at various stages small child, a naughty
brat, a dissatisfied young woman who loves her mother and does not receive
enough love in return, and a mature and wiser adult. The relevant episodes
are told in a forthright style, with a healthy sense of humor and, on occasion,
an equally candid expression of pain and frustration. She relates that at
the age of twenty-two she experienced "This unfortunately, would be the
first and only time that I had the opportunity to open my heart to my mother."
Most of the other descriptive references to Karen Horney are more light hearted. Many are humorous and all are enlightening. The intimacy of a daughter's perspective time and again surpasses in accuracy the erudition of colleagues and devoted followers. Renate Horney's aim and purpose in writing this book however, was not to focus on her mother as an accolade nor a condemnation. She must have felt that her own life was worth writing about, a conviction that this reviewer shares. The format that she chose is unusual, even the title a hint at an inner world that is highly personal and unexpected.
She comes as a highly gifted and adventurous person who had a most unusual life, savoring adversity as well as plentitude. The intense aliveness that she maintains in her advanced age makes her biography a joy to read. Each episode is told with an air of vivaciousness that omits suffering and that fascinates the reader. Such an amount of energy, joie de vivre, and spirit of enterprise may indeed be the fruit of her heritage, traits that she shares with her mother and her sisters, each one in her own field. Genes do make a difference.
Edward R. Clemmens, M.D.