I've known Bridget Ryan since her 'beatnik' daze. This is a woman who has lived, loved, and lost... deeply. Bitches With Problems is a testament to not only turning tragedy into triumph but a manual for young adults to successfully navigate the onslaught of temptations that life tends to put in our paths. I highly recommend reading, no, devouring Ryan's book.
Rick Beneteau
Award-winning author
and songwriter
They say everyone has a memoir in them. Not everyone has an epiphany... The author takes "Sacred Zen on the Road." We read how Dorothy Parker, Ken Kesey, Sylvia Plath, Henry David Thoreau and others help her weave a way to George Elliott: "it's never too late to be what you might have been."
Jeff Riordan Hinich
Author, Walking with Thoreau
Throughout Jet's retelling of her life's adventures we learn of a shy, introverted and yet precocious young girl who begins a lifelong search for the meaning of her existence. We are introduced to the few and utter lack of familial influences from her aging parents, the interactions from her brothers and loving sister as she reveals to us how she struggled through her wild, life experiences.
In true flashback form, as if awakening from a dream we meet Jet's teenage friends and the wild experimental rides they went on.
Through her poignant, naive impressions of her youth we learn of her alcohol, drug and pot-filled attempts to obliterate her pain and the fear of moving on without their influence.
Jet's naive love of life gets terribly tangled. It begins innocently enough like anyone's experimentation with underage drinking, dabbling in drug use & making (some) bad choices not only in the 60's & 70's but in the decades to come.
Her ability to handle what comes her way is soon out of her control as she experienced pressure to perform at her best and then loses the one she loves. Her struggles to maintain her equilibrium with no support from her Irish parents (as they would not speak of it) or friends (who mostly didn't know what she was dealing with) alienated her even more.
It is a gripping read which gives you a sense that Jet is always hanging from a precipice. It begins with snippets of her development and grows to a heartfelt emotional prose as she comes to understand and shape her purpose.
'Somehow I had to face people & figure out a way forward'.
- she comes to learn without delusions, without stimulants, by living in reality, accepting its moments of grief and subsequently allowing herself to embrace the possibility of joy & peace; not only in the present but essentially in moving forward.
Readers please read on but hang on for the bumpy ride!
Colette Beliveau
