Thanks for the link, Cricket123.
My maternal grandmother was an abusive alcoholic, but passed when my mother was quite little. My mom did talk to us about her. Not a lot, though. It was usually to explain things like why she couldn't hear with one ear, or where she'd gotten a scar. It was usually quite matter of fact. She didn't hide that her mom was an alcoholic, but it's just they way it was.
I haven't read the book, but may need to pick it up based on the excerpt. My maternal grandfather passed a few years after his wife, so Mom and her siblings were raised in a children's home (orphanage). It's so unnerving to see my family in parts of that excerpt when my grandmother's influence over my mother was over a relatively short period of her life. I think it speaks to just how much addictions in a family really affect even young kids.