Léonie Rosenstiel’s PROTECTING MAMA: Surviving the Legal Guardian Swamp is a cautionary tale for anyone with aging parents. The details of Rosenstiel’s 14-year crusade to be able to act on her mentally fragile mother’s behalf are riveting and complex. After her husband died, Rosenstiel’s mother developed Alzheimer’s and became a target for meddling relatives and manipulative for-hire “caregivers” who only wanted her money. Though her daughter had legal power of attorney over the family’s sizeable estate, the meddlers joined forces and lied about the mother-daughter relationship. As a result, New Mexico officials made Rosenstiel’s mother a ward of the state under the supervision of a for-profit public guardianship agency.

Rosenstiel’s vehement protests caused her to be banned from contacting her mother. After much lobbying, she was granted supervised visits, which she found heartbreaking: “You can’t cry, Mama,” she said to her mother, who was overjoyed to see her. “If either one of us cries, they’ll stop me from seeing you ever again.” The memoir goes on to detail the complexities of this dark struggle.

The book is well-footnoted and wraps up with an informative 42-page index. Rosenstiel is a skilled researcher who provides detailed documentation to back up her claims, as most of her facts are well-substantiated. However, the author at times borders on the paranoid when she shares some of her unsubstantiated observations. These include her belief that the head of the guardianship agency tried to run her over with a car and that she became deathly ill after she was sent an envelope laced with poison.

The book is professionally presented, free of typos, and has a lovely cover. However, its voluminous detail, spread out across a two-decade timeline, could be better organized. Also, the author could winnow down the book’s large cast of characters, as many are not germane and only cause confusion. Similarly, the author meanders off point too often. A pages-long description of how the author feeds her backyard wildlife is just one of many odd anecdotes included that add little to the narrative.

Rosenstiel, an accomplished academic, public speaker, and advocate, is simply too close to her subject matter. The book would benefit from an objective eye to eliminate extraneous sections and better assemble the complicated ingredients of this tragic story.

Léonie Rosenstiel’s PROTECTING MAMA: Surviving the Legal Guardian Swamp is a passionate, well-researched exposé about the perils of adult guardianship.

~Robin L Harvey forIndie Reader