Something interesting to note

Last evening (after I returned from the Library), I posted a review on amazon of a really neat new memoir I read. It's by Rachel Sontag and it's called "House Rules." It's her own story of growing up in a house, marriage and family that are ruled (there's no other word for it) by her dad. Her father is a really bright guy, there's no doubt about that. He's a medical school professor at Northwestern University, and some type of doctor. He's also kind of a sadist and a control freak -- from the way she tells it. Ultimately, she ends up estranged from the family and never really makes her peace with the situation. It's the story of a family that's not MANIACALLY disfunctional -- just kind of cold and emotionally abusive.

But here's the interesting part -- After Rachel Sontag published the book, her father has made a practice of logging onto Amazon.com in order to trash Rachel in print, disputing her 'intepretation' of the events, giving her negative votes and even setting up his own website to refute her take on her own childhood. In many ways, this tells a much deeper story than just reading the book alone might. Score one for Amazon. In a sense, it's not just dead pages in print -- it's a living, breathing psychodrama. Brought to you by amazon.com -- and yours truly.