Catherine Burns’s father died suddenly when she was nine years old, leaving her to cope with a disorienting grief process and a mother who believed that long-term mourning was for the weak. In the years that followed, mother and daughter developed a volatile yet sometimes profoundly tender relationship, now captured in mesmerizing detail in It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks. A blend of deadpan humor, sparkling wit, and moving ironies, Burns’s recollections weave her childhood memories with scenes from her life as a rising actress. When she becomes a mother herself, she faces renewed questions about the nature of good parenting while experiencing a maternal love that surpasses any intensity she has ever known. A realistic depiction of the strained dynamics many families face, this is a captivating account of parent and child and the quirky bonds that sustain them.