The story begins with the news of the return of her father after 30 years in prison. Her perfect description of her sombre recollection of her past, and her childhood trauma that comes crashing back sustains the interest in the book going forward
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There are few books that have the ability to make readers feel the writer’s voice ringing in their ears. With each passing sentence, Ford is able to bring forth multitudes of emotions flooding into our senses. Somebody’s Daughter offers intimate insights into the life of a young girl in the throes of a tumultuous family that takes more than it nourishes. The story begins with the news of the return of her father after 30 years in prison. Her perfect description of her sombre recollection of her past, and her childhood trauma that comes crashing back sustains the interest in the book going forward.
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An excerpt from her book stands out. One day when she was a child, her grandmother dug a hole in their backyard, revealing several garden snakes slithering, intertwined. When Ashley asked her grandmother what they were doing, she replied, “They are loving each other, baby.” Her grandmother then poured lighter fluid into the hole, lit a match and tossed it in; the little girl watched in fascination as the snakes squeezed closer together while burning to death. “These things catch fire without letting each other go,” her grandmother explained. “We don’t give up on our people. We don’t stop loving them. … Not even when we’re burning alive.”
Ashley has an innate ability to see people for what they truly are. An honest and unabashed understanding of human nature runs through this coming-of-age story of a young girl born into poverty with a father incarcerated for rape, and raised by an emotionally indifferent and volatile mother. Her troubles are often spoken so matter-of-factly that one tends to wonder about the tenacity of a woman who overcame so much to be the person she is. The American voice’s memoir is one of strength, perseverance and tenacity.
Title
Somebody’s Daughter
Author Ashley C Ford
Genre Memoir
Publisher Flatiron Books
Cost Rs 1,527; (hardcover) Rs 472.15 (Kindle)
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