Carrie and Me

January 7, 2013
Born in 1963, Burnett’s eldest daughter, Carrie Hamilton, was an actress and playwright beginning to establish a name for herself when she died of lung cancer at age 38, in January 2002. In this nostalgic look back at Hamilton’s short life and last work-in-progress, Burnett (One More Time) portrays a loving daughter who was nonetheless difficult during her adolescent years when she was abusing drugs heavily and spent several stints in rehab, before emerging as a gifted actress who landed a plum role as Maureen in the national tour of Rent. Burnett inserts into her chronological narrative excerpts from her own diary entries, for example during the fraught time when she and her then husband, Joe Hamilton, were beginning to suspect that their 15-year-old daughter was on drugs, and later e-mails and faxes exchanged between mother and daughter over her last years, when Hamilton was living in an isolated cabin by herself in Gunnison, Colo., and sending periodic installments to a story she was writing. “Sunrise in Memphis” related a whimsical road trip to Graceland, Tenn., by the 23-year-old hard-drinking Kate and a sweet, gentlemanly cowboy called F.M.; the story prompted Hamilton to take off on a real-life road trip through the South, sending impressionistic dispatches to Burnett. “Sunrise in Memphis” remained unfinished, but appears at the end of this poignant, piecemeal work.

November 1, 2012

The multi-award-winning actress reflects on the up-and-down life and, just as things got rosy, the tragic death of her sweet daughter.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2013
Beloved comic actress and author Burnett has penned a poignant tribute to her late daughter, Carrie Hamilton. Pulling no punches, Burnett details Carrie's youthful struggles with drug addiction and her long, hard journey through rehab and beyond. After successfully emerging from the dark years, Hamilton forged a successful, independent career for herself as both an actress and a writer. Before she died at age 38 of lung cancer, she asked her mother to complete Sunrise to Memphis, the story she had been working on before her illness exacted its final toll. Unable to do so, Burnett came up with an alternative, fashioning an intimate portrait of a sometimes challenging, always loving mother-daughter relationship by combining correspondence from Carrie with her own anecdotes and memories. As a bonus, Burnett provides the unfinished Sunrise to Memphisa fitting tribute to her talented daughter's creative life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2013

Iconic comedian Burnett lost her oldest daughter Carrie Hamilton to cancer in 2002 when Carrie was only 38. Burnett touched on her loss briefly in her second memoir, This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection, but here she gives a heartfelt tribute to a daughter who fought addiction to become a successful actress, singer, and writer. Burnett's diary entries and the emails between mother and daughter as Hamilton recovered and matured capture a loving relationship. Included in this memoir is the draft of a book Carrie was working on before her death, about a woman and a mysterious cowboy who take a road trip to see Graceland. Hamilton took this journey herself to explore her mother's roots in Louisiana and Arkansas, and the trip is chronicled through emails to her mother that reveal Hamilton's intelligence, kindness, and love of life, which makes her lost battle against cancer all the more poignant. She had asked Burnett to finish her book for her. While Burnett was unable to do that, she includes Hamilton's writings here in their entirety. VERDICT A highly recommended mother's tribute that will bring tears to most readers' eyes.--Rosellen Brewer, Sno-Isle Libs., Marysville, WA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2013
Comedian Burnett (This Time Together, 2010, etc.) limns her relationship with her eldest daughter, Carrie Hamilton, who died of cancer at age 38. A mother can be forgiven for a tender yet poorly written book about a beloved daughter who died too young, but Burnett's prose is uninspired and littered with cliches. In her telling, excitement is always "unbridled," life is full of experiences that are "magical," "beautiful" or "terrific," and people are always "gung-ho," even on the cancer ward. It would be tempting to dismiss Burnett's recreated dialogue as pure fabrication, except that about half of the book consists of emails from her daughter, which she copied and pasted directly into the text. Missing a narrative arc, the book meanders through various chapters of Hamilton's life: her youthful drug addiction and multiple, ultimately successful stints in rehab; the collapse of her parents' marriage and, later, her own; her wanderlust; her early success as an entertainer. Hamilton led a varied and unconventional life, and her exploits should be richer and more engaging on the page. Unfortunately, they are flattened by Burnett's refusal to analyze: She tells us that her daughter traveled constantly, and where, but she never explains why. Although the book is deeply flawed, its subject, Hamilton, comes across as a warm, vivacious and talented young woman. She acted, wrote and sang, and she was a caring daughter, sister and friend. According to the many glowing letters Burnett received after Hamilton's death, she was loved by all those who came into contact with her. A mediocre book, but it's not difficult to understand why Burnett wrote it. Instead of buying it, rent Tokyo Pop, a 1988 cult classic starring a young, radiant Hamilton.

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