As you would expect then, Nelson spends the bulk of the book trying to demonstrate how she constantly overcame adversity with the one underlying factor in her survival being her love for her son. A certain amount of this is not up for dispute, like the fact that she suffered through four bad marriages and the deaths of her two brothers. She has been in car wrecks, she has been physically abused and she has been abandoned. Unlike a supposedly fictional version of her as portrayed in the film 8 Mile, she says she was never addled by drink or drugs. She claims that she was ruthlessly tormented by Eminem's two-time wife, Kim, and that when she sued her son the whole thing was a misunderstanding that got manipulated by a money-hungry attorney who ended up with the bulk of the settlement. In essence, anything derogatory you may have heard in Em's lyrics or elsewhere is denied.

Towards the end of the book Nelson doubts herself as a mother, wondering if things would have turned out differently if she had been able to discipline the rebellious Marshall at a young age. But the only major mistake she admits to making is that at one point, in the heat of the moment, she told young Marshall that she wished he was dead.

I suppose only Ms. Nelson and Em know the whole and real truth but that's mostly irrelevant here---train wrecks can make for good entertainment. Whether you sympathize or laugh out loud this book is a fast and fun read.