“But if I were to become unlikeable, if I were no longer viable as a brand, I might finally allow myself to be a person. This book is my final act of defiance, my last hope, and I’ve done the one thing that nobody, not my mother and not even me, expected: I’ve written the truth. Not anything so neat and tidy as what you read in the news, or see on TV. But it is the truth, as I experienced it that summer. I’ve no illusions about being liked after this. But at least I’ll be understood.”
