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kimbofo's review against another edition
3.0
Many people may know Sigrid Rausing as the editor of Granta magazine and the publisher of Granta Books, but she is from a wealthy Swedish family which made its fortune from food packaging (her grandfather co-founded Tetra Pak). Curiously, this memoir isn’t about Rausing’s life; instead it is about her sister-in-law’s death.
Eva Rausing, one of the wealthiest women in the UK, died of a drug overdose aged 48 in the summer of 2012. Her body was found in the London mansion she shared with her husband, Hans (Sigrid’s brother), under a pile of clothes in a barricaded bedroom. Hans was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife and later sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Mayhem: A Memoir looks at the outfall of this death on the Rausing family, but much of its focus is on the years preceding the tragedy, for both Hans and Eva were drug addicts (they met in rehab) and were so entrapped by their respective addictions they had given Sigrid and her husband Eric custody of their four children.
Heartfelt, searing and deeply reflective (but occasionally tinged with self-pity), the book emphasises the collateral damage that drug addiction wreaks on entire families and shows that being born into immense wealth offers no protection against tragedy.
Eva Rausing, one of the wealthiest women in the UK, died of a drug overdose aged 48 in the summer of 2012. Her body was found in the London mansion she shared with her husband, Hans (Sigrid’s brother), under a pile of clothes in a barricaded bedroom. Hans was charged with preventing the lawful and decent burial of his wife and later sentenced to 10 months in jail.
Mayhem: A Memoir looks at the outfall of this death on the Rausing family, but much of its focus is on the years preceding the tragedy, for both Hans and Eva were drug addicts (they met in rehab) and were so entrapped by their respective addictions they had given Sigrid and her husband Eric custody of their four children.
Heartfelt, searing and deeply reflective (but occasionally tinged with self-pity), the book emphasises the collateral damage that drug addiction wreaks on entire families and shows that being born into immense wealth offers no protection against tragedy.
nrldyer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Addiction is incredibly difficult and most I've read or seen on the subject comes from recovering addicts to read about it from the perspective of a family member was insightful. Added in to the mix that this is no ordinary family and so how privilege, extreme wealth, notoriety and of course children affect sigrid and the situation are v compelling. Sigrid doesn't shy away from any of it though of course it is memoir not autobio and she deliberately has to shield her brothers' children. I found it very moving, sad but ultimately uplifting
holgerm9's review against another edition
5.0
Honest and at times frightening, Sigrid Rausing's "Mayhem" reveals the turmoil drug addiction can bring upon any family. It also contains insightful observations on the industry that has grown around recovery, both pharmaceutical recovery and recovery spas that make it seem as though kicking a dangerous habit is nothing more than a luxury vacation.
eleanorfranzen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A memoir about the destructive power of drug addiction within a family. Rausing is a former editor of Granta and comes from a family of Swedish packaging heirs (her grandfather invented TetraPak). Her brother Hans, and his American wife Eva, were heroin addicts for decades; they even met in rehab. In 2000, they relapsed. After a twelve-year downward spiral and the removal of their children from their care, Eva’s decomposing body was found in their West London home. (Hans was cleared of culpability in her death, and remains alive and sober.) Mayhem is Rausing’s attempt to figure out, to her own satisfaction, what happened; she conceives it as an explicit move past the facts and figures of official paperwork like court testimony, coroner’s report, and so on. The idea is very good, and the facts are heartbreaking, but for me Rausing’s approach is somewhat alienating. She dwells on psychoanalytic theories and studies about addiction, and on fragmented memories of her and Hans’s childhoods, but rarely brings these together into scenes with dialogue, or into an insightful synthesis. It feels cruel and unfair to ask someone to be insightful or artistic about the devastation of their family, but if they’ve chosen to write a book about it, that’s the brief. I would have preferred a stronger sense, too, of who Hans and Eva were as people, both pre-and post-relapse. By the end of the book I didn’t feel I knew them particularly well, just their actions. Maybe that was Rausing’s point, but there must be addiction memoirs that manage this. Any recommendations? Source: local library #LoveYourLibrary
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, and Drug use
mindthebook's review against another edition
4.0
En kollega/vän skickade med mig den här från de brittiska öarna till den svenska ön, med orden "Den här var intressant. Den läser du snabbt." Så var det. Tyckte den var mycket välskriven och mycket tragisk.
Tänkte tidigt på Tolstojs "alla olyckliga familjer..."-citat. Vi pratade om hur Rausingbrodern tågluffade österut i sin ungdom och råkade träffa ett par italienskor på stranden i Goa. De frågade om han ville prova lite heroin och det ledde till ett långt missbruk. Vi pratade om hur det kan vara möjligt att ha fyra barn och tjänstefolk i ett stort Londonhus med ett minst sagt familjenormbrytande, väldigt hemligt, låst rum högst upp, där mamma och pappa tar tunga droger och ibland äter lite glass på nätterna. Det var också där Evas döda kropp hittades sommaren 2012 efter flera, flera års folie à deux.
Det märks att Sigrid Rausing är akademisk, litterär och har erfarenhet av att vara analysand i Freuds tradition. Finner mig snabbt till rätta bland hennes socialpsykologiska och sociologiska Milgram- och Goffmanreferenser. Vissa svengelska meningar känns lite hemtrevliga, t.ex. "I am, for the first time since it happened, alone in the house." (Tunga adverbial placeras först eller sist, som det heter, till skillnad från i svenskan.)
Tillstår slutligen att det är oundvikligt att känna ett visst klasshat; utöver Chelseahuset gråts det på gods i Sussex, i sommarstugor vid kustlinjen i Sverige etc. - så hur synd är det egentligen om den här familjen? Svar: mycket.
Tänkte tidigt på Tolstojs "alla olyckliga familjer..."-citat. Vi pratade om hur Rausingbrodern tågluffade österut i sin ungdom och råkade träffa ett par italienskor på stranden i Goa. De frågade om han ville prova lite heroin och det ledde till ett långt missbruk. Vi pratade om hur det kan vara möjligt att ha fyra barn och tjänstefolk i ett stort Londonhus med ett minst sagt familjenormbrytande, väldigt hemligt, låst rum högst upp, där mamma och pappa tar tunga droger och ibland äter lite glass på nätterna. Det var också där Evas döda kropp hittades sommaren 2012 efter flera, flera års folie à deux.
Det märks att Sigrid Rausing är akademisk, litterär och har erfarenhet av att vara analysand i Freuds tradition. Finner mig snabbt till rätta bland hennes socialpsykologiska och sociologiska Milgram- och Goffmanreferenser. Vissa svengelska meningar känns lite hemtrevliga, t.ex. "I am, for the first time since it happened, alone in the house." (Tunga adverbial placeras först eller sist, som det heter, till skillnad från i svenskan.)
Tillstår slutligen att det är oundvikligt att känna ett visst klasshat; utöver Chelseahuset gråts det på gods i Sussex, i sommarstugor vid kustlinjen i Sverige etc. - så hur synd är det egentligen om den här familjen? Svar: mycket.
nicinny's review against another edition
3.0
Parts brilliant, parts boring and rambling. This one dragged for me. Nothing compelling or even all that emotionally gripping- which is surprising given the subject matter. I got bored of hearing how super rich the family is and how they were basically surprised their riches were not enough to stop two addicts from using. Don’t get me wrong, much of the writing is good, in fact very good. The author has some good insights and often returns to considering the causes of addiction. Overall, this was a lackluster read for me.
obscuredbyclouds's review against another edition
3.0
I'd never heard of Rausing before I picked this book up in a sort of yard sale. Sigrid Rausing is the owner of Granta and a Tetra Pak heiress. In 2012 her sister-in-law was found dead in her house, the husband, Sigird Rausing's brother, hadn't reported her death for two whole months.
The book doesn't dwell much on those sensational parts of the story, instead it's more calm and tells the story of her brother's addiction in broad strokes and with distance. Emotionally, I can fully understand that decision, and even with that distance, there were parts of the book that are difficult to read for anyone with a family member suffering from addiction. Other parts of the book are suprisingly mellow and almost a little too slow. Still, Rausing's writing talent and her family's fame make this an usual book about addiction and its impact on families.
The book doesn't dwell much on those sensational parts of the story, instead it's more calm and tells the story of her brother's addiction in broad strokes and with distance. Emotionally, I can fully understand that decision, and even with that distance, there were parts of the book that are difficult to read for anyone with a family member suffering from addiction. Other parts of the book are suprisingly mellow and almost a little too slow. Still, Rausing's writing talent and her family's fame make this an usual book about addiction and its impact on families.