Memory Slips: A Memoir of Music and Healing

I have read many personal accounts of incest (and other forms of sexual abuse). I am also a survivor of incest (and other sexual abuse as well), and I am a dancer. This book very accurately depicts the effects of child abuse on art, memory, and expression. Linda Cutting achieves this through an honest memoir of her own experience of memory recovery in adulthood, and it's effect on her life and art. Often her words spoke my own experience, particularly in her descriptions of having a flashback. Severe child abuse alters the structure of our minds, but through truth we can transcend. This book is superbly written. With very little description of the actual incest I was transported into her world. I could see her as a child, and the life she lived in. My heart reached out to her. If I ever want someone to understand what life is like for an adult survivor of incest this will be top on my list of recommendations. After reading this book I felt as if I had sat down with Linda, and she had told me her story. I thank her for having the courage to share her story with us. Her book is a great help to other survivors and for anyone who seeks to understand the life of an artist who is also a survivor of child abuse. This book helped me to get in touch with my own strength and empowerment to stand tall despite my past, and to continue my artistic work.

An absolutely stunningly clear account of losing memory- and many of the complexities within this experience- and of reclaiming resilience, balance, and self. As Cutting loses her memory of the music she is performing (music she has memorized and played over and over) in the process of working through her child abuse history, her story is a highly interesting account of the complexities of "memory slips" in an adult. Cutting navigates her history of child abuse with incredible strength and determination, and ultimately with great compassion for her family. Beautifully read by Cutting- some of her piano playing is on this audio cassette which is one reason I would recommend the audio version. Her musical expression is an important part of her story. The audio may be helpful for both women and men who have experienced sexual abuse as children/ adolescents as well as for those who want to understand the impact of this kind of an abuse history. In addition, this audio may be highly valuable in exploring the specific psychological dynamics that can arise with those who are or have been musical performers. The depth of this audio is difficult to articulate- the exploration of family psychological dynamics is worth every penny.

In an era when shock value is the order of the day, it is exhilarating and refreshing to read such an artful, restrained, dignified, humane, even gentle work on a subject of such importance. MEMORY SLIPS is an elegant, powerful, memorable book, and Linda Cutting is a writer of rare gifts.

I've read this book with a mixture of tears and relief. In reading it, I've relived a life of torment and pain, which I could only escape through music. I am now a professional oboist (freelance) and, while I love music, I only have this career because I practiced to escape mental, physical and sexual abuse. To read Ms. Cutting's words and memories was to learn that others have shared my pain and my experiences. Thank you, Linda, for writing so much of what I have felt and could never say.

the 1st review asks, Is this true? I'd like to ask why the reviewer chooses to ask that question. A truly human account of what it's like to have this happen to you. Not a courtroom drama nor an attempt to prove anything to anyone -- that is totally beside the point. I routinely recommend this book to everyone I know. The author's truth is unquestionable.