It’s a brutal, necessary read. Allison doesn’t try to sanitize her family or make them ‘noble’ for the reader’s comfort. She writes about the reality of the ‘bad poor’—the drinking, the violence, the early pregnancies, and the cycle of abuse that destroyed so many people she loved. She’s unflinching about the fact that she was raped by her stepfather and that her mother looked the other way.
The power of the book comes from its refusal to offer a tidy ‘healing’ arc. There is no neat resolution where everything is forgiven and the trauma disappears. Instead, Allison argues that some wounds don’t close, and you don’t ‘get over’ them—you just learn to carry them and use the act of telling the story to reclaim your own narrative.
It’s under a hundred pages, but it hits harder than books five times its length. It’s an essential text if you’re interested in how class, sexuality, and trauma collide, and how storytelling can function as a survival strategy rather than just a hobby.
Details
| ISBN: 9780006548812 |
| Subtitle: |
| Genre: Parenting & Families; Family |
| Subject(s): Families – Drama. – United States; Feminists – Drama. – United States; Lesbians – Drama. – United States; Poor women – Drama. – United States; Women authors, American – Drama |
| Publication Date: 1995 |
| Original Publication Date: |
| Publisher: Dutton |
| Language: English |
| Format: Paperback |
| Pages: 94 |
| Rating: |
| Notes: |
| Book_ID: 106352 |