Off Balance

Author: Dominique Moceanu
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Touchstone, 2012
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: At fourteen years old, Dominique Moceanu was the youngest member of the 1996 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics team, the first and only American women’s team to take gold at the Olympics. Her pixyish appearance and ferocious competitive drive quickly earned her the status of media darling. But behind the fame, the flawless floor routines, and the million-dollar smile, her life was a series of challenges and hardships.

Off Balance vividly delineates each of the dominating characters who contributed to Moceanu’s rise to the top, from her stubborn father and long-suffering mother to her mercurial coach, Bela Karolyi. Here, Moceanu finally shares the haunting stories of competition, her years of hiding injuries and pain out of fear of retribution from her coaches, and how she hit rock bottom after a public battle with her parents.

But medals, murder plots, drugs, and daring escapes aside (all of which figure into Moceanu’s incredible journey), the most unique aspect of her life is the family secret that Moceanu discovers, opening a new and unexpected chapter in her adult life. A mysterious letter from a stranger reveals that she has a second sister—born with a physical disability and given away at birth—who has nonetheless followed in Moceanu’s footsteps in an astonishing way.

A multilayered memoir that transcends the world of sports, Off Balance will touch anyone who has ever dared to dream of a better life.

Review: I imagine this book raised one or two eyebrows in the world of US Gymnastics, but what a story. You watch these girls perform on a stage such as the Olympics and don't imagine anything but a fairytale life for each of them.

Then you grow up and realize no one's life is perfect. We all have our crosses to bear.

Although repetitive at times, Moceanu does a good job of letting the reader into her life. Time, distance, and maturity can do wonders for the soul and I'm sure in some way writing this memoir was healing and a kind of therapy.