Della: A Memoir of My Daughter

• Entertainment legend: Chuck Barris is the creator and former producer of The Gong Show, The Newlywed Game, and The Dating Game, among many others. His memoir, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, sparked a worldwide debate as to the validity of his professed identity when he claimed to have worked as an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1960s and the 1970s.

• A father’s tragic loss: Della Barris, the only child of Chuck Barris, died from an accidental overdose in 1998. She was thirty-six years old, addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and she was HIV positive. In Della, Chuck Barris vividly remembers his daughter, piecing together the moments of their lives, both the good and the bad, to reconstruct for himself and readers his failings as a father, his grief of losing his only child, and poignant memories of his beloved child.

• A cautionary tale: Chuck candidly recounts his life with Delia in attempt to understand their relationship, recreate the beautiful, funny, and sharp-witted daughter he loved so dearly, and to share his doubts, unanswered questions, tremendous heartache, and especially his tender memories of fatherhood.