The other day I happened upon a highly disturbing episode of Oprah. Mackenzie Phillips was on there talking about her “consensual” relationship with her late father, John Phillips of 60′s rock band the Mamas & the Papas. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of Mackenzie Phillips. My mom was a huge Mamas & Papas fan, so I was curious. I watched the rest of the episode and was pretty shocked at how candid she was in talking about the relationship and drug abuse that she partook in with her father. She was rolling joints for her father at 10. Yeah, really messed up.
At first, I had a hard time reading the book. Her writing is mediocre at best. She seemed to have an over-inflated self-image of the relevance of the Mamas and the Papas and her career as well. That being said, I am also 27 years old and obviously am from another generation. I wonder if I would’ve felt more interested in this book if I’d grown up during that generation – 60′s pot-smokin’, hippie livin’, free-lovin’… and all that.
Her story was disturbing… but mostly sad. She lived for her father’s acceptance and parenting. Throughout her life she continued to seek his love, through a haze of drugs and partying. She’d pretty much do anything that that he said. She describes him exposing her to drugs, partying, and abuse from the age of 5. Being abandoned at airports and one time in a rented house while he went out on a bender with the Rolling Stones Keith Richards. Through it all, she just wanted a glimmer of attention from her father. Something that sadly, she never got.
If you’re interested in this kind of story, I’d definitely recommend it to you. Don’t expect it to be a life-changing literary experience though. I’m glad that she’s healed enough to write about her story and I respect anyone with the cojones to write about something as taboo as incest.
