The Warmest December (edizione 2012)

I had a hard time reading this book as I felt like Ms. McFadden had not only lived my life but now she was is in my head listening to my thoughts. Our situations are so similar, the main difference being that my father is not yet confined to a hospital,though it wont be long.
This is a very good book even though I had to take it slow. The writing is superb!
I really appreciate the opportunity to have read this. Thank You. ( )

For someone who loves Toni Morrison, I have to say this book suffers by comparison. Like many of Morrison's protagonists, Kenzie is a victim--here, of the abuse from her alcoholic father. As she sits by his bedside as he is dying, she relives many of the incidents of abuse which caused her to hate him and turned her into an alcoholic as well. Somehow, however, I never really felt that I knew much about Kenzie except for her reaction to the abuse. This was a painful book to read, but for me it offered little to compensate for the brutality. ( )

I've actually read this book a few times. It's a sad story but the author has a writing style that makes the characters flow through the story. I'd recommend it to anyone who has come from a dysfunctional family and liked to see someone's else story. Although it's fiction, many families are indeed affected by alcoholism. ( )

Kenzie spent her childhood in a war zone fueled by alcohol. Raised by an abusive father and a mother who gave up long ago, she and her brother Malcolm just tried to survive their childhood.

This is one of those books that begins at the end, and then is filled with flashbacks. It is a daughter, all grown up now, sitting by the bedside of her dying father, coming to terms with their past. Struggling with her own demons, she is forced to face the fact that her father had demons of his own, and to try to learn forgiveness.

This book had some very intense moments, and it is disheartening to think that there are so many children out there suffering through the same things that Kenzie suffers through in her story. This is a glimpse into a dark world that I was lucky enough to have been shielded from in my childhood, having been raised by a mother who always put her children first.

Bernice McFadden is very adept at drawing you into this desolate world-- one which you get the feeling she is all too familiar with herself.

My final word: Author Bernice McFadden does what she does well. Most of this book was a quiet, meandering walk through a sad and desolate landscape, with glimpses of beauty and islands of oasis amidst the misery. The final brief chapter of this book was beautiful and heart-wrenching, and had me in tears. If you are interested in experiencing the bleak lives of children growing up in households of abuse and alcoholism, told with effective writing and character development, and leaving you with a sense of hope, pick up this book! ( )

This novel is a painful account of the descent of a family plagued with the chronic disease of alcoholism, complete with recognition, recovery and forgiveness at the end of the story. Those familiar with familial abuse and alcoholism will find common ground here, but probably also scepticism based on comparisons in and out. Reviewers found the material to be beautifully written. I thought that it was vividly descriptive and honest, but far too often rather mechanical and certainly not lyrical. And unlike others I was not especially moved (or surprised) by the novel's redemptive ending. If the subject matter interests you, the book is worth a try. ( )