Liz Brown writes:

There are some sunny elements to her childhood: a beloved older brother, an extended family in a tight-knit German-American neighbourhood, an Uncle Charlie with a thriving bakery where all the kids worked. But the deep unhappiness of her parents’ marriage seems to have dominated. Alma, a starstruck and vivacious woman who dressed as Santa Claus at Christmas, had named her daughter after the silent screen star Doris Kenyon. She was quick to encourage Doris’s dancing and singing talents, and the red satin pants she had sewn were probably the least of her efforts. Doris’s father, William, held himself apart from all that. He seems to have been a silent, cold man – barely present to his children and wife. He taught music and gave voice lessons, conducted a choir and played the organ at the local Catholic church, although he was forced to give this up when he left his family for Alma’s best friend. Devoted to classical music, he had nothing but scorn for popular songs; when he still lived at home, he and Alma fought over the radio. He particularly hated ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries’, and Alma, in especially perverse moods, would get her daughter to perform it for him. It’s a grim picture.

(LRB 11 September 2008)

Virgin | hardback 628 pp. |ISBN: 9781905264308