If your parents had strict rules and you are still feeling upset about it, perhaps you would rather have had Moira Greyland’s parents.

Moira’s mother was Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of the Mists of Avalon series. Her father, Walter Breen established himself as an expert numismatist (coin collecting).

Now that we’ve got their public personas out of the way, let’s turn to Greyland’s account of life at home, The Last Closet.

It was privileged, to be sure. Mom’s books brought in enough money to pay for Moira’s harp lessons and horses. Famous people dropped by. The family owned multiple homes.

The Breen/Bradley family also maintained no sexual boundaries. I’m told that Bradley’s fantasy books bathe readers in a brew of beyond-necessity feminist eroticism, which makes sense once you read up on Mom’s childhood and love life, not to mention Mom as perpetrator of sexual and emotional abuse.

Daddy was the kind, sympathetic parent. Which isn’t to say he was a responsible parent. When he moved to a separate house and Moira followed, just to get some respite from Mom’s moods,

“Would he drive us anywhere? No, of course not. Help with homework? No. The idea of him paying bills? Preposterous. Going to the bank? Impossible. Putting out the trash once a week? Absurd. Cooking? Never.”

Then there were Daddy’s habits. At sci-fi conventions, he offered young fans shiny toys as a way to, um, get to know them better. When he brought his new friends home, these boys, not yet imprinted with Walter’s brand of sexuality, cast their eye on Walter’s daughter. Moira as an unwitting sexual competitor enraged Daddy.

So, you’re wondering: how nauseating is it to read this book? Greyland tells just enough for you to get the picture, then holds back on the rest, partly because she can’t stand to say what all she endured.

Naturally, a childhood like this sets you up for a whole lot of wrong choices, wrong friends and wrong turns. At the same time, Greyland details her accomplishments as a singer and a harpist, not to mention her conversion to Christianity. How could a person this broken also be a person this accomplished? Then again, how could she not? Greyland claims that frantic busyness and achievement were her way of keeping the flashbacks at bay.

Why would be worth you time to read a book like this? For the same reason you return to your doctor for your post-surgery checkup. Here’s what we tried to do. How well did it work?

We’ve had sixty years of sexual revolution. Its Walter Breens, its Marion Bradleys believed it promised a brighter future, a greater human freedom.

But its Moira Greylands are now old enough to tell their side of the story.

I think we owe her an audience.

Photo credit: zen on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA