Margins
Love Sick book cover
Love Sick
One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction
2001
First Published
3.77
Average Rating
304
Number of Pages

A powerful, deeply personal and often lyrical memoir of a woman learning to value herself as a person rather than a sex object, after years of sexual abuse by her father. Silverman's message is relevant to anyone suffering from addictions. A deeply personal story of a woman's addiction to and recovery from the high of dangerous encounters. In this powerful, often lyrical memoir, a woman learns to value herself—-as a whole person rather than as a sexual object. Recounting her past experiences as part of her journey toward recovery, Sue William Silverman explores her skewed belief that sex is love, a belief that began with her father's sexual abuse from early childhood into adolescence. She tells of college years in Boston, an early marriage in Galveston, and a roller-coaster life of sex and self-destructive behavior. Finally, having become addicted to danger itself, she hits bottom emotionally and spiritually. At this point, with the help of a trusted therapist, Silverman begins to discover the difference between the high of dangerous encounters and the more reliable promise of love. This utterly candid account may be the first book by a woman to examine sexual addiction. But the misguided search that became Silverman's life has resonance for other addictions, whether to food, drugs, alcohol, or work—-anyone whose only satisfaction is now.

Avg Rating
3.77
Number of Ratings
495
5 STARS
31%
4 STARS
32%
3 STARS
24%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
3%
goodreads

Author

Sue William Silverman
Sue William Silverman
Author · 7 books
Sue William Silverman's new memoir-in-essays is HOW TO SURVIVE DEATH and OTHER INCONVENIENCES (University of Nebraska Press), and was listed as "1 of 9 essay collections feminists should read in 2020" by Bitch Media. Her previous memoirs are THE PAT BOONE FAN CLUB: MY LIFE AS A WHITE ANGLO-SAXON JEW (University of Nebraska Press); LOVE SICK: ONE WOMAN'S JOURNEY THROUGH SEXUAL ADDICTION (W.W. Norton), which also aired as a Lifetime Television original movie, and BECAUSE I REMEMBER TERROR, FATHER, I REMEMBER YOU (University of Georgia Press), which won the AWP award in creative nonfiction. Her craft book is FEARLESS CONFESSIONS: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO MEMOIR, and her poetry collections are IF THE GIRL NEVER LEARNS (Brick Mantel Books) and HIEROGLYPHICS IN NEON (Orchises Press). As a professional speaker she has appeared on "The View," "Anderson Cooper-360," "CNN-Headline News," the Montel Williams Show, and the Discovery Channel. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved