IN THE SHADOW OF FAME

As the daughter of child development expert Erik Erikson, Bloland and her siblings experienced a joyful and tormented childhood. Celeste Lawson provides a warm representation of Bloland's view of childhood. Surprisingly, Erikson and his wife were unstable parents and incompatible marital partners whose quest for the limelight provided little stability for their children. Their lives in sunny California appeared idyllic and glamorous; the family home was surrounded by beautiful flower, vegetable, and fruit gardens tended by Bloland's mother, and a pool where many a party overlooked gorgeous sunsets. But her father's affairs, her mother's passive-aggressive personality, their worrisome behaviors, and the shocking discovery of an institutionalized sibling with Down's syndrome proved too bizarre for the children to understand. B.J.P. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]