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Riding Fury Home: A Memoir (2012)

by Chana Wilson(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1580054323 (ISBN13: 9781580054324)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Seal Press

review 1: It was the title that got me, then the cover and then the content of this memoir! Wonderful book of a really awful, lonely and frightening childhood. I have worked with troubled kids in the past and this story really resonated with me, my heart went out to the author as this story was inspired by her childhood. You would think that a child with a harrowing upbringing would loathe the parent, in fact it can be just the opposite. The need for love by and from a parent is all consuming with kids just as with the author who wanted a whole and normal relationship with her very troubled mother and for most of her childhood ended up being the adult and taking care of the both of them. The story starts out with seven year old Karen (the author) and her dad going to visit her moth... moreer Gloria who held a rifle to her head and had the gun not jammed she would have found herself splattered on the wall instead of at the mental hospital. Her mother is in and out of the hospital throughout Karen’s childhood, occasionally coming home on a pass for some brief and very scary times. Karen must make sure her mother does not commit suicide or pass out from too many drugs or burn the house down with her ever present cigarettes… Karen is left alone with her mom most days and nights as her father who, can absolutely not handle his wife rushes off to work each day and works late each night. It is not until farther into the book we find out that part of the mental anguish the mother has suffered is because she is gay and in the late 50’s this was still a very “taboo” subject. In grade school we see Karen being left alone to parent her parent while her spineless, frustrated without a clue father goes overseas for a job and leaves Karen alone in the house with her mom. This is the part that broke my heart, with neighbors coming over and trying to help and at the same time wanting to put some distance between them and this troubled family. The story moves on through Karen and Gloria’s life and we see the relationship and the love with these two remarkable women grow stronger. Gloria gets some horrendous treatment at the hospital, shock therapy a large assortment of drugs all to cure her from being gay and it isn't until years later that mother and daughter finally heal and bond as Karen also comes out as a lesbian. This mother and daughter relationship is heartwarming, harrowing and from the story written here I can clearly see Karen (Chana) is doing just fine. A wonderful read!
review 2: This book is amazing. I couldn't put it down. I didn't expect to be shocked at anything to be truthful. I thought I had heard it all. But, you really can't know the anguish another person has suffered unless you have too. I knew that people are cruel and that homosexuals are teased, bullied, and discriminated against. But, I don't think that any of those conditions are things that I have not also faced as a heterosexual. The conditions mentioned in the book were far above anything I could have imagined. This is not bullying or being left out cause you don't fit in. This is torture and quite frankly inhumane. This is not the kind of behavior society should condone. This book is a must read, not for homosexuals, not for the friends of gay community, this should be for everyone who wishes to live in a civil society.Kudos to Chana Wilson for her eye opening book! less

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