Katja Berg’s A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is an incredibly inspirational memoir about life as a single parent, the struggles, the victories and the moments in between. It is told from a single mom’s perspective as Berg allows us to walk in her footsteps and see the world through her eyes. She knows the pain of divorce, the crushing effect of financial woes, and the heartbreak that comes with rejection from friends whom she had known for years. While Katja Berg is hurt many times, her strength to pick up the broken pieces and move on is remarkable. Her parents’ support throughout her tough times is also admirable. Ultimately, this is the story of a mother’s love for her children embedded with the importance of sisterhood amidst fearsome turmoil.

On the cover of A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is an alluring image that grabbed my attention and pulled me right in. The memoir is captivating, to say the least. It contains a lot of raw emotions that add an appealing layer. Katja Berg builds a powerful foundation right from the beginning as she describes her childhood vividly. The events happen chronologically which makes it very easy to follow. A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is for all fans of memoirs, but most of all it is for the single moms seeking inspiration or strength to carry on. This well-written memoir will prove to you that you are not alone and someone out there understands what you are going through.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is a memoir by Katja Berg. At the beginning of her memoir, Berg briefly recounts her upbringing in Denmark and how great an impact their culture had on her as a young child. At the age of nineteen, she moves to London and instantly falls in love with the city. At this point in her life, Berg seems to be living in an enchanted world full of adventure and some mischief. Of course, as her life progresses, things become complicated, especially when she meets and falls in love with a man named Casper. Katja and Casper move in together and establish a personal and professional relationship. However, when Katja becomes pregnant things start to change.

One thing I want to highlight about A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is how well it is constructed. A lot of memoirs stray away from their genre and into the autobiographical territory, but Berg stays consistent and because of this her writing felt alive. Within the pages of this memoir, I read about Berg's life and how she overcame her struggles, but at the end of it I found myself reflecting on the importance of parents and the importance of having a support system, especially when you live a hectic life. I could not stop reading because of how vivid and intense Berg's writing is. A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is a thought-provoking and moving novel that both women and men should read to better understand the struggles of love, life, and parenthood.

When Katja was growing up between the Copenhagen Zoo and the Carlsberg brewery, she never for one moment expected to become a single mother of twins. Follow the life and times of Katja as she grows up in Denmark and travels to London to become a successful florist. Katja meets Casper and the no-strings relationship is soon given a kick into serious when she discovers she is pregnant. When Magnus and Pepper are born, Casper’s selfish and womanizing ways go from awful to unbearable. Katja not only has to deal with mounting debts and an unsupportive and cheating partner, but a nagging self-doubt that she is not the perfect mother everyone else around her seems to be. Katja is just about surviving when the recession hits, forcing her to make drastic and life-changing decisions. This heartwarming journey of self-discovery will tug at your heartstrings and make you laugh out loud too. Katja is pushed to her limits and then some, but will this lioness find her voice and roar?

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name by Katja Berg is a well-written and brutally frank memoir of a ‘real’ woman faced with single motherhood. I related to everything in this book, all the little details such as the brown envelopes arriving through the mail and gaining self-confidence by watching others worse off than yourself on television. I admired Katja’s tireless battle against the useless, womanizing Casper and I kept hoping she would realize that her inner strength could defeat anyone who tried to break her. This book should be read by every single mother who lives with a daily dose of self-doubt that their best will never be good enough. Katja proves that to be a single parent requires stamina, resilience, plus emotional and mental strength. A memoir that will evoke different emotions throughout, including some very funny moments. Katja is a true warrior.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name is a great memoir. Katja Berg has a great “voice” and a good writing style. I especially enjoyed reading about her life growing up in Denmark. I compared it to my own experiences growing up in Alabama and I found her memories of her childhood thoughtful, insightful, and compelling. These are very different experiences than those I had, but I found her conclusions about childhood, teachers, and parents strikingly similar. Rich in detail and keen observations, A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name will make you laugh and cry. But most of all, it will make you think. That is what any good book, especially a memoir, is supposed to do.

As a memoir, A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name has no plot as such. But it does have a theme and this theme resonates throughout the novel. Katja Berg writes well. She writes in her own unique voice and I enjoyed reading about her life and her thoughts about the people, places, triumphs and defeats, as she goes through each phase of her life. Her thoughts about being a single mom are especially powerful and I felt how male privilege has benefited my own life as a single dad. Things I have often been praised for, she did as a matter of course with little or no praise, and even less support. I enjoyed reading about her life and I feel many other readers, male and female, will enjoy it too.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is a memoir written by Katja Berg. One of the opening chapters in Berg’s memoir is titled “Dancing on the Edge” and she uses that metaphor to describe how life is for a single parent. Berg came from a relatively dysfunctional family, but she worked through the craziness and built a little business for herself. She fell in love quickly and easily with flowers and floral arrangements, and quickly became the go-to florist for special occasions hosted by the elite. And while she had had her share of boyfriends, the one man who attracted her attention almost instantly was the young Dutchman who was delivering flowers for her shop. His name was Casper, and the two of them began to establish a warm and devoted friendship. Soon, he would be her business and personal partner, the one person she trusted more than anyone, and the father of her twins.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is a wryly humorous autobiography that should be required reading for anyone considering having children, or entering into a relationship for that matter. She tells her story in a matter-of-fact tone that is neither complaining nor asking the reader for sympathy. Berg accepts her decisions and anything that stemmed from them, but one can’t help but want to thump the dastardly Casper and, unfortunately, many of his kind out there who are predatory at best, often descending into wanton cruelty. Berg’s memoir is a triumph in so many ways. It tells the story of how she endured the breakup and the subsequent awfulness Casper put her through, and charts how she was able to slowly rebuild her business after he left. Throughout it all, her dedication to her kids and her determination to keep their lives apart from the chaos she had to live through shines most brightly. Most of us are aware of what sacrifices parents make in raising families, but few ever do fully recognize the particular burdens that are faced by single parents. Berg’s story makes that aspect of parenthood very clear indeed. A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is beautifully written and is a marvelous and inspirational read. It’s most highly recommended.

A Rubber Face With A Stripper’s Name is a heartfelt memoir about the life of single Danish mother Katja Berg. Katja had hit rock bottom. Lonely, afraid, anxiety-ridden, put through the emotional wringer, and full of insomnia, she knew that she must find a way to pick herself up, dust herself off, and rise again like the phoenix from the ashes. Somehow. It was then, at the suggestion of her therapist, that she recorded all of her pain and anguish in a journal as a way to jump start the healing process and begin her journey toward self-discovery. Katja gives detailed accounts of her struggles as a woman, a single mother, and an entrepreneur in order to help uplift other women who are experiencing the same difficult issues.

Being a single mother is hard, hard work. When I read this book, Carly Simon’s ‘Haven’t Got Time For The Pain’ came to mind. (I actually found myself humming it.) Katja Berg’s raw honesty about pushing through the toughest times of her life in order to become the best mother she could be, as well as a learning tool for others in the same boat, is quite inspiring. No matter how hard things became, I got the feeling that somehow, through it all, she never lost her sense of humor and optimism. This book is wonderful for anyone out there needing to be reminded that they are not alone, things will get better, and you are in charge of your own happiness. Inspiring, insightful, five stars!

Katja Berg is your average, everyday solo mom who has gone through the trials and tribulations of falling in love with the wrong person and being left saddled with two children and a mountain of debts by her wastrel partner. A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name is her poignant story of her struggle to cope with the pressures of everyday life that being left in that situation can put on you. Born and raised in Denmark, Katja emigrated to Britain when she was eighteen and followed her love of flowers into opening up her own floral shop in Richmond, London. The birth of her twins, Pepper and Magnus, and the realization that her partner and “soul-mate” Casper was a cheat, a liar, and a thief from their own savings and business meant she had to face the dilemma of debt collectors, bailiffs and family court, while still trying to bring a sense of normalcy to her children’s lives and somehow find her own inner peace. We follow Katja as she attempts to navigate the judgements of other parents, family and friends whilst still trying to find her own happiness again in the world of being a single mother.

It is true what they say that the best memoirs are often those of ordinary people, just like ourselves. We can all find something to identify with in Katja Berg’s emotional and at times heart-wrenching story of love, loss and friendship. As a solo father myself (for a period), I could readily identify with the struggles she went through. Berg said she wrote A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name to reach out to all solo moms and tell them one simple thing: “You are not alone.” I think there is something in this story for any reader to extract. The essence that came across the most, to me, from Berg’s story was simply that friendship is something that must be treasured and it is not our right to judge anyone for their choices in life. We have no comprehension of the road they are walking and all we need do for our friends is be supportive, be there and listen – but don’t judge. The writing is clear, easy to read and to the point, with no restraint on language. There is no attempt to varnish the truth or hide from her own shortcomings. Berg understands that both parties in a relationship are responsible for the growth and development of their partnership. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and took much from the author’s perspective on life.

Given the number of books based on the difficulties of being a single mom, do we really need yet another book on this same subject? Well, we might not need another, but how many of the books available are memoirs, written in a conversational woman-to-woman style, complete with such uber raw detail from time to time that, depending on your upbringing, you might either be appalled or crack up laughing?

Either reaction is what readers of A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name by Katja Berg might experience. The clever title alone is enough to arouse interest, and before you ask, Berg is the one with the rubber face and a stripper’s name. And if tears could dissolve a rubber face, Berg might not have had one left by the time she finished writing this book about her unfortunate relationships with men. The worst of these was the handsome, cheating, irresponsible and immature Casper with whom she had twins and ran a florist business, only to have him run off with another woman and leave her close to penniless. Sadly, while the circumstances, times and locations are specific to Berg, what she endured with Casper, and the rejection and criticism she copped even from her female friends, is probably all too familiar to many single mothers.

But what saves A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name from being downright depressing is Berg’s unbridled humor. When she breaks up her otherwise serious narrative with lines like “All your friends are bored in bed with their husbands – just get a vibrator” or “He wouldn’t be able to find his “own a- -hole if you gave him a map,” then crying is the last thing a reader will do! So if readers are going to be offended by Berg’s in-your-face diction, then perhaps you’ll need to think twice before picking up this book. But perhaps it was Berg’s ability to laugh at her situation that helped her not only survive what Casper and others put her through, but to thrive and grow into one very strong woman, an excellent mother and a successful businesswoman. That’s obviously what Berg wants for all women who find themselves in a similar situation. Is that what you want for yourself? Read A Rubber Face with a Stripper’s Name and see how she did it. An enjoyable and informative read.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name by Katja Berg is the true life story of a woman living in modern day, cosmopolitan London. Danish by birth, Katja finds herself pregnant with twins, running a business in the middle of a recession, and living a partner she can't rely on, both emotionally and financially. What follows is a struggle not only to survive in the midst of the chaos, but also to live her own life. What follows is a sometimes funny, sometimes sad string of events that a lot of modern women face today. This is a story that many women can relate to and it is tragically real but also inspiring.

Katja Berg's A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name is a memoir that every man and woman should read. Honest, straightforward and objective, the author's writing style is endearing. Leaving her homeland at the age of nineteen, Katja falls in love and goes off to Australia. Heartbroken, she comes back to London and becomes an entrepreneur. What makes A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name highly interesting is that it reveals the plight of women in today's complicated modern world. And perhaps without meaning to, it becomes an inspiration to many. On the brink of bankruptcy, feeling used and rejected, and alone with two little kids, she plods on and faces the challenges that life has to offer. Katja Berg is one woman who takes the bull by the horns and lives to tell the tale.

A Rubber Face with a Stripper's Name by Katja Berg introduces the reader to Katja, who never planned to have twins or be a single mother. Life, however, always has a way of showing you something different. Katja may have been born in Denmark but her twins were born in London into a time that wasn't financially secure. Her relationship with the twins' father is sour, to put it mildly, and it would be so easy to lie down and give up. Katja doesn't do that; instead she chooses the life and family worth fighting for.

I have had a lot of struggles in my own life in the last year, nothing like the ones Katja faced, but I found myself drawn to this story because I felt I could relate to it. I am so glad that I did choose this book to read because I enjoyed every moment. All of us have faced struggles in life, had our hearts broken and had to find a way to make things work so it is very easy to relate to Katja. This book is well written and the pace of telling the real life story being faced by this young family is well done. I have found sometimes memoirs can fall into a trap where it feels like they are just going down a list of bullet points for day by day duties. This book never feels like that; it reads like it could be good fiction, and I mean that in the best way. If you find yourself needing a little inspiration and help working through some things going on in your life, pick up this book. It is a great read and you will feel inspired by the time you are finished.