Memoir
207 pages
New York Times Bestseller
We meet at airports. We meet in cities where we've never been before. We meet where no one will recognize us.
A "man of God" is how someone described my father to me. I don 't remember who. Not my mother. I'm young enough that I take the words to mean he has magical properties and that he is good, better than other people.
With his hand under my chin, my father draws my face toward his own. He touches his lips to mine. I stiffen.
I am frightened by the kiss. I know it wrong, and its wrongness is what lets me know, too, that it is a secret.
Grade: A- Get thee to a bookstore!/Must Read
This is a dark, dark book. I will give a warning that it is probably not for the young or extremely sensitive, but I leave that at your discretion. This was a brilliant recommendation by my Creative Nonfiction teacher. This memoir is so dark, sensitive, beautiful, and insightful. In my eyes, the perfect combination. There is a glimmer of hope and beauty in a true story like this where someone rises from such darkness. Harrison’s writing is immediately engrossing, and my heart aches just as much at the context of each sentence as the sentence itself. Her words punch you in the gut and stay with you for days. I needed the ending and the relief of her closing lines and was amazed with myself on just how much I needed it. It was if I was holding my breath underwater the whole way through reading of it. I wiggled, I squirmed, I cried.
Due to the material, there will be some people who will never read this. And that’s okay. Also, while for me it was good enough to own, for some people it might be too dark to read more than once. Harrison opens up her life and soul in this piece which had me turning each page in a trance. I admire her bravery in telling her story and the skill of her telling demands this book to be read.
Completion: A+
I couldn't not finish this book. Just knowing what it was about made it impossible for me to not know how it ended. The memoir was so easy to read and accessible that I read it in one sitting.
Writing/Style: A+
For such difficult, unimaginable content, Harrison handles it with such grace and beauty in her language. She knows just how to angle the camera so to speak and she reveals just enough on that cautious line between tragically vivid and horrifically indigestible. She knows at what moments to give detail and at what points to look away.
Characters: A-
I hate her family. I HATE her dad. Although, that’s probably a given. I am amazed at her ability to distance herself in order to flesh out her family and the depth of their characters. I felt like I understood them (to an extent) because they were presented with all of the complexities and contradictions that real people have.
Plot/Pacing: B+
For some, the content will be too much and I don’t blame them. For those who can get past it, the structure of the memoir goes back and forth in time to show the full picture of Harrison’s relationship with her family and her incestuous relationship with her father. However, I do feel personally that the back and forth did not do much for me other than slow down the natural chronological progression of the story.
World-Building/Atmosphere: A-
The atmosphere is intense. I would not recommend reading this in one sitting like I did. Harrison is a little too good in making everything feel real and vivid.
Sub-genres (Romance, Humor, Mystery, etc.): B+
This memoir does not have much in the way of sub-genres. That is partly why it is so hard to read because there is not much to take your mind off the horrible and disgusting reality of what this father did to his daughter. There is not really any humor or romance or mystery. Normally, I love how sub-genres can take a book to the next level; and yet, this book doesn't really need any of that.
Question Time!
1. Does this sound like a book for you?
2. What books, if any, have you read that could be labeled dark?
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