Title: Unintended Consequences
Author: Janet Kay Swain
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN-13: 978-1-5434-6071-1
Pages: 200
Genre: Memoir
Reviewed by: Jason Lulos
Pacific Book Review
Seemingly inescapable trauma and yet hope. This is what sums up the author’s turbulent life set down in this memoir titled Unintended Consequences. It is a paradoxical theme, as is the notion of the dual role of being both a victim and a survivor. Author Janet Kay Swain bravely bears her soul and struggles with being born into a life alcoholism, drugs and abuse. This book is intended to offer hope to others who may have endured similar hardships. With all of the trauma that she has gone through, it would seem irrational to suggest any hopeful silver lining, but her point is that even in the darkest moments there is light – not just at the end, but along the way.
Janet Kay Swain had little chance of avoiding this harsh life. Born to alcoholics of a transient father and a mother who didn’t want her, Swain was raised by her grandparents. Her sickly brother was catered to while she was not. Confusingly doted on and abused by her grandfather and scolded by her grandmother, her life had all the makings of a dark Cinderella story in which the prince and fairy godmother make evanescent appearances but never save her, leaving our heroine to conclude she must not be worth it.
Whether it be her aunt, uncle, or significant other, every light ounce of hope seemed to vanish as soon as a trusting bond was formed. This led to chaotic relationships with older men; all manners of abuse and two pregnancies before she was twenty. Combined with a steady diet of drugs, alcohol and trading sexual favors for the former two, it became a vicious cycle. She articulates how this cycle becomes familiar and how, irrational as it seems, this way of life becomes a hard habit to break. Despite all of this compounding turmoil including periodic suicidal attempts and homelessness, she ultimately finds her way to a stable situation in the end. This is truly a remarkable story.
I imagine her loneliness through much of her ordeal was a significant reason for her to write the book, as it will indeed offer hope to others; showing how one can endure these obstacles and break the pattern. Having overcome addiction, with gracious help from therapists, she ends up with a “generous and giving man,” Joseph, and is genuinely proud and grateful for her sons, Brandon and Jeremy, thanking them in the dedication. It’s hard not to sympathize or empathize with each of her frustrations and each of her traumatic ordeals. This makes the book both engaging and difficult, and once you make it to the end, cathartic.
