Playground Book Reviews

PLAYGROUND

A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion

Author: Jennifer Saginor

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Jennifer Saginor is the daughter of Hefner's personal physician, "Dr. Feelgood," who made a name for himself during the 40 year-old friendship and decades of living at the Mansion. Playground delves into how a drug-and sex-fueled whirlwind, violence and parental neglect, can shape one's life. While the surrealism of the Playboy Mansion and glitz of Hollywood provides a compelling hook, the heart of the story explores the complex, confused, and painful dynamics of family relationships from a child's point of view.

When she was six, Jennifer Saginor swam into John Belushi having sex with a Playmate in the Playboy Mansion jacuzzi. By fifteen, she'd tried every drug under the sun, had sex with men and women, lost interest in school, and been legally separated from her mother and younger sister.

Jennifer's memoir, PLAYGROUND: A CHILDHOOD LOST INSIDE THE PLAYBOY MANSION, is a candid, shocking, and addictive read. At times voiced with a sort of prescient detachment that broke through the fog of her over-stimulated adolescence, PLAYGROUND is at once a stirring memoir and a fascinating look at a very particular time and place in American culture.