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A review by alexandramilne
Mayhem by Sigrid Rausing
3.0
Read my other book reviews at booksibled.wordpress.com
There was something incredibly odd about reading this book. I picked it up on a journey home from work and read for the whole 45 minutes and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I read at home, on my sofa, for an hour or so. Nope, still nothing.
I read on the train back to work the next day and this time I was so sure that something was up that I googled the book as soon as I got into work.
I remember the case.
In July 2012, Hans Kristan Rausing was caught speeding in London and found to be high. When police went to his home they found his wife’s body, concealed under a tarpaulin in their bedroom almost three months after her death, the room sealed with duct tape.
The pair were rich and known to be drug users, so much so that their children had been removed from their care by their family. They were codependent and flitted in and out of rehab, normal life and drug use. The case was shocking but it was wrapped up quickly. Eva Rausing died of a cardiac arrest after taking drugs. Hans found her and, perhaps unable to cope, threw the tarp over her and left the room.
Mayhem is the story of Hans and Eva told through the eyes of Hans’ sister Sigrid who saw the whole situation unfurl and eventually became joint custodian of their children. Sigrid is a thoughtful narrator who weaves early memories of life as children and the later memories of the family’s struggles with Hans’ drug habit. She is sympathetic to both her bother and his late wife despite their occasional attacks on her and their family. (Including, at one point, Eva accusing their father of murder.)
She tries to focus on the what may have lead to the death of Eva and if more could have been done and this gives a fascinating insight into the constant struggle of being a family member of someone with an addiction or disorder and trying desperately to help them in the best way. It was, occasionally, gut wrenching to read and the inevitable end became so much less of a horrific show as it had felt when it hit the papers in 2012.
If I was to give a criticism of this book then I think it could be argued to be an understandable one. I often felt like Sigrid was trying, sometimes desperately, to prove that they tried to help. That they were swimming blind with no idea what more they could do and that they couldn’t have done any more. This wasn’t necessary to me. I never, for one second, saw any of this to have been the fault of the family. Addiction is an illness and our current treatments aren’t always enough. We don’t understand it as well other illnesses and people can function so well without help that sometimes we don’t know until it is too late.
P.S. A haunting book covering the events leading up to the accidental death of Eva Rausing and the hiding of her body in a flat in a well off area of London. The narrative has a dream like quality as it flows between childhood memories, Eva and her husband’s issues with addiction and the present day. Clearly a product of a grieving family still coming to terms with the loss and publicity that came with such a public family breakdown.
There was something incredibly odd about reading this book. I picked it up on a journey home from work and read for the whole 45 minutes and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I read at home, on my sofa, for an hour or so. Nope, still nothing.
I read on the train back to work the next day and this time I was so sure that something was up that I googled the book as soon as I got into work.
I remember the case.
In July 2012, Hans Kristan Rausing was caught speeding in London and found to be high. When police went to his home they found his wife’s body, concealed under a tarpaulin in their bedroom almost three months after her death, the room sealed with duct tape.
The pair were rich and known to be drug users, so much so that their children had been removed from their care by their family. They were codependent and flitted in and out of rehab, normal life and drug use. The case was shocking but it was wrapped up quickly. Eva Rausing died of a cardiac arrest after taking drugs. Hans found her and, perhaps unable to cope, threw the tarp over her and left the room.
Mayhem is the story of Hans and Eva told through the eyes of Hans’ sister Sigrid who saw the whole situation unfurl and eventually became joint custodian of their children. Sigrid is a thoughtful narrator who weaves early memories of life as children and the later memories of the family’s struggles with Hans’ drug habit. She is sympathetic to both her bother and his late wife despite their occasional attacks on her and their family. (Including, at one point, Eva accusing their father of murder.)
She tries to focus on the what may have lead to the death of Eva and if more could have been done and this gives a fascinating insight into the constant struggle of being a family member of someone with an addiction or disorder and trying desperately to help them in the best way. It was, occasionally, gut wrenching to read and the inevitable end became so much less of a horrific show as it had felt when it hit the papers in 2012.
If I was to give a criticism of this book then I think it could be argued to be an understandable one. I often felt like Sigrid was trying, sometimes desperately, to prove that they tried to help. That they were swimming blind with no idea what more they could do and that they couldn’t have done any more. This wasn’t necessary to me. I never, for one second, saw any of this to have been the fault of the family. Addiction is an illness and our current treatments aren’t always enough. We don’t understand it as well other illnesses and people can function so well without help that sometimes we don’t know until it is too late.
P.S. A haunting book covering the events leading up to the accidental death of Eva Rausing and the hiding of her body in a flat in a well off area of London. The narrative has a dream like quality as it flows between childhood memories, Eva and her husband’s issues with addiction and the present day. Clearly a product of a grieving family still coming to terms with the loss and publicity that came with such a public family breakdown.