Gift from the Rebecca Pollard Study Club by way of the author, L. Kephart-Nash. MAR22.
Summary:
A wicked and intriguing tale of abuse, revenge, and murder... Sitting in my comfortable kitchen, in my peaceful home looking at the new coffee mug with the humorous message, I anticipated nothing more than a good cup of coffee to start off the day. What happened was, the message to put "someone in a book and kill them" made me laugh. At first. Until a fifty-year-old memory replayed itself and with it came sadness and regret that I hadn't - didn't - couldn't - wouldn't - ? help a beaten, sad young mother, whose name I couldn't even remember. Whose daughters seemed traumatized, and whose son was already displaying his father's brutish behavior. I learned something a few days ago from my youngest daughter, Kimberly - who is a grandmother herself now. When she read the finish of this book, in a shocked voice, she told me, "I remember that boy!" - and it is her memory I have recorded in the end of this book. I have written from my imagination about something that is not fiction: abuse. And how it's handed down generation after generation, criminal, evil, an abomination. I have never walked in the shoes of someone who has suffered abuse and I apologize for presuming to write as if I know what they have endured. I do not know, beyond what I have seen, heard, read about. And just that seems too much. In this story I gave the name "Ted" to that brutish husband-father, and lavished every desired worldly gift on him, and then I killed him. I wish I could have helped that young mother years ago.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.