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High on Arrival cover art

High on Arrival

Written by: Mackenzie Phillips
Narrated by: Mackenzie Phillips
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Publisher's Summary

Not long before her 50th birthday, Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion of One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin.

Born into rock and roll royalty, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, a spellbinding, visionary phantom.

When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman, she joined the nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes.

By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father.

As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, Phillips overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again, and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth - to stay.

©2009 Shane's Mom, Inc (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

What listeners say about High on Arrival

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As Healing as it is Traumatizing

I was really surprised by this book. Of course I'd heard about the shocking revelation of the sexual relationship between the author and her father, so I was expecting that. What took me by surprise was the raw and ugly and too true reality of addiction : what it does to the addict and what it does to the people who live the addict.

Loving an addict is... complicated. Loving a parent who's an addict is its own mangled ball of feeling, the good tangled with the bad, not to mention how those feelings turn back on you and you wonder if you're a bad person for being resentful of a person and an illness they can't help.

I'm grateful that the author found a way to say all of these things, for giving a voice to the complex desires to have love and attention from a parent (even if that parent isn't really a good one), to giving me insight into the mind of an addict and helping me understand why it's not as simple as 'just stop' no matter the stakes, to telling the one truth that will set you free: forgive.

It's not as easy as it sounds, and it probably never will be, but once you've made up your mind to forgive, no matter how long it will take or if you never are able to get to that point, you will start to heal.

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Thank you Mackenzie!! I give a 5 star review!

Mackenzie was easy to listen too..but sad to hear of her addiction experiences! I have learned alot from this book..for that I am thankful!

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Still The Same Beautiful Person

Even through the awful days of drugs, at no fault of her own, the intelligent soft hearted young woman couldn’t be hidden. I knew she would make it. I’m so glad I was right… and yes, the sitcom would not have been the same without her. This is the best most honest book I’ve listened to and learned from of all the bios.

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Very impacting

Great book about a personal experience in addiction, abuse and family disfunction. I couldn’t stop listening.

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Excellent

Enjoyed listening to this title as it is read by the author. Makes more personal and expressive.
Great book very courageous of the author Mac Kenzie Phillip's to be so personal about all aspects of life including incest

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Raw and emotional

I didn’t know much about Mackenzie Phillips. Coming into this story was hard to listen to at times - it’s so real and raw! Great listen! Thank you for the honesty.

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Good Listen; Tough Revelations

I grew up watching One Day at a Time (the original) and remember Mackenzie Phillips getting fired from the show, but I never would have imagined everything that went on in her life at that time and beyond. It's been interesting to watch reruns of the show after listening to the book, seeing how painfully thin she is and wondering if that's one of the days she had been up all night before being on the set.

Mackenzie Phillips is a great narrator, and I found her voice very easy to listen to.

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Touching, Truthful & pure Honesty!!

This book touched my heart in many ways. Although I am not a famous actor, her life is so relatable when she speaks of her addiction.
I loved that the Author read the book herself which made listening to her story so much more connecting.
I will be recommending this book to friends & family.
I, myself will definitely listen to her story again!!

You will not be disappointed with the purchase of this book!!

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