If Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and Dave Pelzer's "A Child Called It" moved you, you will forever be changed by the candid, if shockingly raw, portrait of survival painted in "Mom, Dad, Lawrence and Me" by new memoirist Donald Haugen. Forever conscious of how mothers, fathers and their children should respond to one another, Haugen considers how it is his family was torn apart by divorce, religious prejudice, and poverty. As if confirming how it is any of us endure childhood, Haugen reveals the physical, mental, and sexual abuse he suffered in his. He recounts how his mother made him pretend to sleep in the front of the family car while she seduced countless men in the back seat. He tells of her abandonment and later how his father would remarry a woman whose family would brutalize him on a small farm in rural Minnesota. He tells us how he survived to create his own identity-and how it is the human spirit is resilient and that no matter what was done to us as children, we can carve out a successful, full and rewarding life. Haugen does a masterful job of telling his story. His colorful and vibrant scenes are easy for the reader to see in their mind's eye. It is a talent to be celebrated. It is a page turner and you will find it hard to put down as you fall in love with this little boy and want to learn what is going to happen to him next.