Leírás
Five-year-old Jennifer Lauck lived with her parents, elder brother and two cats in 1970s Nevada. It should have been a perfect, peaceful childhood but her mother is very ill and Jennifer has to struggle with things she should never have to cope with. This is a deeply moving and profoundly inspiring memoir of a child with an unbreakable spirit and sense of survival.
A heart-wrenching memoir that covers six years of the author's childhood. Casting her thoughts back to her five-year-old self, Lauck recalls living in Nevada in 'the only house she will ever call home'. Hers is not a natural childhood for she bears the weight of her mother's illness on her little shoulders. 'Drop dead handsome' Daddy goes out to work - feisty eight-year-old brother BJ goes to school and Jennifer stays at home helping to put her dying mother 'together' to face a day of pills and pain and gallant efforts to play her part in family life. Narrating in the present tense, Jennifer unfolds the searing but unforgettable story of her life from five to 11 years old. With an immediacy that makes each incident leap from the page, there is a breathtaking urgency in her writing that forces us to continue reading as each agonizing incident is recounted and somehow we remain as optimistic as she is - surely Mom will get better one day? Surely Daddy's replacement lady-friend will turn out nicer than she seems? Surely someone will make Jennifer feel that she really belongs somewhere - that she needn't face a terrifying world entirely alone? By the time she reaches 11, so much has happened in her life, she has had her unbreakable spirit and faith in humanity tested so relentlessly that it is almost incredible she remains as loving, trusting and ultimately untarnished as she obviously is. This might have been a depressing story - but somehow it isn't because Lauck is a born survivor as well as a compellingly good storyteller. (Kirkus UK)
Szerző - Jennifer Lauck