Rating: 
Summary: Very sad
Review: I read this book when I was 10 years old, my older sister left it lying around and I, being a curious kid, picked it up. There were a lot of things in it that I didn't understand and over the years, that book haunted me, all of the mysteries that I didn't understand at such a young age haunted me for years and I was never able to find this book again until now, 16 years later. I simply cannot believe that the medical field has changed so much from the 1950's until now. I can only imagine what the Spungen family went through with little or no help from anyone. I have a child with much of the same symptoms that Nancy had and she is medicated and sees a pshycologist and a pshychiatrist and without them we just wouldn't make it. Getting custody of her is why I just had to find this book and re-read it. It is a wonderful book about a mother and father who tries their best to raise a child with a mental disorder that was not recognized as a disease but as a behavioral problem. I felt the pain that the mother went through and the heartache of not knowing "when her daughter would die". "And I don't want to live this life" is a wonderful book for anyone who has a child with mental problems. It makes you realize just how lucky we are these days.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: What an unbelievable story of destruction and pain. I admire Deborah and her family and am so happy to hear that her siblings Susan (Martha Stewart Living Editor!) and David went on to live well-adjusted successful lives. Deborah and Frank should be proud!
Rating:
Summary: An unforgettable life.
Review: Thankfully, I learned of Nancy from her mother, before I'd ever learned about the gripping tale of her death and the haunting that surrounds her name. I learned about Nancy from this book, not from her affiliation with Sid Vicious. I knew Nancy from the beginning of her life to its end, rather than from its end to its beginning.... and only because of this book.
I may never have heard of Nancy in my lifetime, if not for a coverless paperback that happened into my life (and I forget how). But, learning about her helped me to realize how very significant every life is. How amazing every person can be, and how -important- all humans are. Each of us is something to someone, in some way. Even those who are selfish and beyond reason!
I don't think Mrs. Spungen did something miraculous, and I don't think Nancy was extraordinary. What I do think is that this team of mother and daughter loved each other the only ways that they knew how, just like the rest of us.
It is a comfort to feel such companionship with other people, and that is why I feel this book succeeds. It's not a glamorous story, but it's a true story, and it is honorable. The lives of these people are worth your attention.
Rating:
Summary: And I don't want to live this life
Review: WONDERFUL. It was the best book that I have read since Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugarman. I really feel like I knew Nancey as well as her family. Great Book!
Rating:
Summary: WEre we reading the same book??
Review: A lot of people, including John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and this wierd guy from Amazon.com/UK who previewed the book, have said that Nancy was never emotionally disturbed but was vile because she was spoiled by her parents in her semi-rich suburban nieghborhood surroundings. "They got her a psychiatrist at age four," says John Lydon, appalled."Go figure she grew up the way she did." WERE WE READING THE SAME BOOK? She NEEDED one at age four, she wasn't spoiled, because her brother and sister were raised the same way, and they were FINE, even the shrinks said so. I'm sure "normal" spoiled suburban kids don't chase their babysitters around the house with scissors. I'd love to know where these readers got these ideas. I really would.
But on to the review: Touching, powerfull, gripping, you'll probably stay up to odd hours of the night reading it to see how everything turns out it's THAT good, doesnt even BEGIN to describe this book. If Deborah maybe used fancier words and sentence structures, this book would be a classic. I mean, a lot people buy Wuthering Hieghts and Catcher in the Rye and Charles Dickens, but how many buy the books and actually really really like them? I bought the book a year ago and have read it SEVEN times in that one year, it's that good.
I can assure you that if you buy the book, even if it doesn't become your all-time favorite, you'll still whole-heartedly enjoy it. A warning though: it can and at most times WILL be very destrssing and disturbing. Debbie wasn't exaggerating when she said Nancy's was a "frightening, misunderstood, tragic life."
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this book!!!
Review: I read this book at school first, because we had to! We had two choices and I chose this book. I heard it was a good one, that's why! Well, when I read the book I was amazed. I had no idea who Nancy Spungen was until I read the book. I never realized there are kids out there just like Nancy. Her parents had to go through a lot raising a daughter like her. It was so sad all the doctors said she was just fine and that all she needed was love. It was sad that no one really saw how she suffered all her life. It was good she finally reached the peace she had always whished for, but the way she got it was tragic. She needed cure. She was sick. This book shows to people how a little mistake in a child's life can change everyone else's life too! The mistake which was made, was that she was given her drug dose at the age of only 3 months old. From that day til the end of her life, she was depending on drugs. The book is very good for prents with similiar kind of kids and all the people from pre teens to adults. It describes the world of drugs and disturbed children! I am the one who would like work with kids like Nancy in the future. I am 17 years old now, and reading the book I always thought, what if I was like her. What if I did all those things she did. I am lucky I am not like her!
Rating:
Summary: Honest and Forthright
Review: Admitting to one's own faults and exposing family problems is not an easy thing to do yet Mrs. Spungen does so in a frank and forthright manner, she doesn't gloss over her family's life with-and without-Nancy. Nancy may have been mentally ill and a difficult child to raise, but it does show that her parents always loved her unconditionally and did try to understand her (even though that was not always possible).
It's sad that she has become a pop icon of sorts, best known for having been stabbed to death in the Chelsea Hotel, and not known for the insight and ideals that were uniquely Nancy's, but Mrs. Spungen does bring many of those qualities to light to show that yep, Nancy was a real person with a real life and real problems and occasional triumphs.
Rating:
Summary: and all that could have been
Review: I read this book in almost one sitting a few months back. Perhaps i should have invested more time into it, but I just couldn't put it down. The story of Sid and Nancy, it was the only real book I found that would try to insure Nancy's side of the story (I feel now, after reading the book, that while it may sound naive, the press really wronged her), while as the author proves to be an impressive narrator. She states of nancy-positive (which seems to be few and far in between) and nancy-negative, both with equal intensity. The author, only because she is her mother, can provide a side never seen by the endless newspapers and books. She tells a lot of hard-pressing details, of the fact that the world may have been to blame, or perhaps the doctors, or Sid even. She often questions herself and her husband, and their sanity. But yet she issues no blame. Some of the eventful stories in this book, can be told nor found anywhere else. All in all, I am ultimately conviced that it's a throughly enjoyable book; engaging and thought-provoking. Plus- I love this book, and it has sort of came to be a part of me (how corny). I don't want to tell any sort of stories. You have everyone else for that, and it may reveal too much anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Shocking!
Review: Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious and his groupie girlfriend Nancy Spungen were heroin addicts, hell-raisers, and one of the most notorious couples in rock history. In October 1978, Sid was charged with stabbing Nancy to death. A few months later, he killed himself by a drug overdose before ever going to trial for her murder.
This is what most people knew and thought about Sid and Nancy. Before I read this book I knew that the punkrock group Sex pistols had existed sometime during the 70's, but I didn't know anything about Sid and Nancy. When reading "And I Don't Want To Live This Life" by Deborah Spungen I was completely stunned. This is the life story of the doomed punk legend Nancy Spungen, seen through her mother's (Deborah Spungen) eyes. In this haunting, heartbreaking tale of parents trying to deal with an out-of-control, apparently schizophrenic, drug-addicted child, Deborah Spungen spares no one. Not Nancy, nor Sid Vicious, not the medical or psychiatric professionals, who gave the Spungen's no help with Nancy, and in some cases even seemed to make things worse. Spungen doesn't forget the educational system, either, which abandoned Nancy. The legal system and media also failed Nancy, which is pointed out many times in the book. Most importantly, Deborah Spungen does not spare herself or her husband.
The book is deeply personal (Spungen bravely admits having had an affair while married) and the reader gets a close look in on Nancy's short but extremely painful life. Spungen's description of the days leading up the murder feels almost unbearable. The days after the murder are heart wrenching. When I started reading this book I couldn't stop because it just captured me totally. I admire Deborah so much for her courage. I would never have been able to deal through all of the pain and anguish that she did. I cried my eyes out when I read it, so it was very touching and I think that it's probably the best book I have ever read. It made me so sad to know that Nancy was never able to find happiness in her short, sad life. However, I do hope that her relationship with Sid Vicious brought some comfort in her painful life.
My uncle suffers from schizophrenia and it makes me so angry to think that no one could tell what was the real cause of Nancy's behaviour. If the doctors had told Deborah about the possibility of Nancy suffering from schizophrenia their life might have taken a turn to the better.
Nancy's death is very tragic and her life is even more so. I hope she still can somehow rest in peace.
Rating: 
Summary: She's Not a Writer
Review: And you have to keep that in mind while reading it. Don't read it if you're only looking for a book about mental illness Plath style. I believe the goal of Deborah Spungen writing this book was to tell others in the same situation that she was in that they are not alone, (well ok, she says that's her intention) which I suppose is as good intention as any for writing a book. However, I've never lost anyone to murder (hope never to) so my interest in this book was Nancy and only Nancy. (And I'm not even a Sex Pistols fan so my interest didn't spring from that) She's a mother done wrong by the medical community (probably due to the times this took place in, I like to believe things are a bit different now and we've come further) and felt powerless to stop her daughters self-destructive streak and she's murdered, and she wants to write about it so it's hard to pass judgement because I've never been in her position but she opened herself up to criticism and I don't find Deborah Spungen particularly likeable as a person. Mind you, I don't think she was a horrible mother and I cried at the end and I appreciate her effort but I would have been a lot better off buying something fictional (which mirrors real life anyway so don't think I'm off living in a complete fantasy land). But I suppose it depends on why you want to read this book. If you think you'll connect with it or you've been in a similar situation then by all means, you'll probably like it. If you have some curiosity in Nancy because you're a self-indulgent twit and like to pretend you'll be able to connect with her (like me?) then don't bother. The book would be a lot better if it was fiction and written in Nancy's position, but it's not, it's real life and written by her mom and real life ...[stinks] and I'm mad I spent 12 dollars on this becasue it wasn't particularly insightful nor a good read. However, whatever insight you're allowed into Sid's character is very odd. I can't hate him, but I sure don't like him. And if you want to learn weather or not Sid really killed her (as there is a whole group apperently that thinks it was a third party) you won't find concrete answers here though it's well accepted that he did. Nancy's dies around page 300 so roughly 1/5 of the book is dealing with how her family coped with her death and how her mother decided to help other people. So read it if you want a book about coping with murder, not for Nancy.
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