Welcome back to real life (at least for the next three weeks) - hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and didn't gain more than the pumpkin-turtle pie was worth.
After the family togetherness and eating (and some online shopping - I hate crowds), I spent the free time catching up on Tivo'd episodes of Hoarders on A&E. No matter how many times I see stories on compulsive hoarding, they never fail to break my heart. There was one episode in particular that left me shaken in Hoarders, Patty/Bill in season one. If you haven't seen it, they have a very short clip if you click on the link, click on the 1 next to the word Season and then choose Patty/Bill (for some reason, the link won't go right to the episode). Listen carefully to Patty as she is talking about the house - you'll hear the phrase that made me sit up and take notice. In the other story in the episode (which they don't show in the clip), Bill has a daughter who lives in a spotless bedroom in the middle of the hoarded home - exactly like my character Lucy in Dirty Little Secrets. His daughter was so much like my character it was scary.
I'm glad that I wrote the book in late 2007, because otherwise I'd be accused of blatantly ripping off episodes of this series. There are so many details that are in Hoarders that are in the book that it is really astounding. Its amazing that so many people who have no contact with each other, behave in such similar ways.
On this date: In 1948 Kukla, Fran and Ollie debuted.
3 comments:
I couldn't get the link to work- it wasn't loading properly. But I did see that you can BUY your very own Hoarders disc, which seemed kinda funny and wrong to me.
I don't get A&E - I'd heard about this show, but never seen it. At $24.95 per episode, I probably won't download it. I probably wouldn't survive a whole show... this clip made me break out into a heart-pounding sweat. O. MY. GOSH.
What a painful, painful thing to see.
Glad you wrote about it! Fictionalizing it makes it more accessible.
They do have a few whole episodes on the A&E website, but they are REALLY difficult to watch. I feel like I need to watch them to stay informed, but each one leaves me with tears in my eyes for all involved. You're right - the fiction is easier to take, even if it is based on fact.
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