Zelda Lockhart

I listened to this book on Audio. The narrator was excellent and drew me into the story of Doris Payne. But what a story. I found it fascinating to read about her life of crime, but I found little to like about her choices. I could understand a bit of why she was so determined to make good on her own, but her methods were criminal, and she never showed remorse for her actions. Great fun reading about her fashion and her travels. All in all if you want to hear a story from the criminal point of view, it was an easy read and funny throughout.… (altro)

This is a very difficult book to read as it centers around generations of abuses within one family. Told by Odessa, the "Fifth Born" (of eight children) we follow her through a life of violence, physical and mental abuse, a father's rape of his daughter (while the mother stands by and even begins to get jealous of the daughter), parents unable to love their children and stop the vicious cycle that it all is. The writing, while beautiful, even poetic, in some spots, is inconsistent and choppy. I also just got really numb to page after page of such hatred. The "Deddy" is so patently hateful and nasty, as described by everyone in this book, that I cannot fathom his rape, murder and hate really extended this widely with no one doing a darn thing about it. This must be the author's experience/exposure/knowedge base, so I do not deny its existence, but there is so little hope, in anything, here. Maybe that's the point. Hopeless. Accordingly, it was a chore to read at times, of beatings, blood, rape of children, even though it's short and the writing style was easy to read. Maybe there are just too many books like this, I don't know. Without adding any spoilers, the ending was absolutely goofy and that made it all seem like a far-fetched nightmare. There are better books on dysfunctional families, that is, if you haven't had your fill of them.… (altro)