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Yet in spite of her father's bouts of violence and abuse, her mother's selfishness and prim denial, and her siblings' personal battles and betrayals, Monica never succumbs to despair. Instead, she forges her own way, thriving at school and becoming fast friends with Julie Kilner, whose father is the town mortician.
She and Julie prefer the casket showroom, where they take turns lying in their favorite coffins, to the parks and grassy backyards in her hometown of Elk Grove, Ohio. In time, Monica and Julie get a job driving the company hearse to pick up bodies at the airport, yet even Monica's growing independence can't protect her from her parents' irresponsibility, and from the feeling that she simply does not deserve to be safe. Little does she know, as she finally strikes out on her own, that her parents' biggest betrayal has yet to be revealed.
Throughout this remarkable memoir of her dysfunctional, eccentric, and wholly unforgettable family, Monica Holloway's prose shines with humor, clear-eyed grace, and an uncommon sense of resilience. Driving with Dead People is an extraordinary real-life tale with a wonderfully observant and resourceful heroine.
My Thoughts:
While reading this, I had to keep reminding myself that it was a memoir. The horrific things that Monica's father did to his family...at times I shuddered thinking "How did she live through it?" Monica's father was a total bastard (pardon my french) and was extremely cruel. He verbally and physically assaulted Monica, her mom and her brother and 2 sisters on a daily basis. Poor Monica wondered all of the time "why does Dad hate us so much?"
Needless to say, after she and her siblings grew up, they suffered the effects of abuse; her brother Jamie was an alcoholic; her sister Jo Ann was suicidal and her other sister Becky was in denial.
Monica's mother left her abusive husband while Monica was in high school. She went back to college and met another man. As Monica got older, her mother became less and less available to her and her siblings, emotionally and physically.
While I enjoyed reading this memoir, reading about Monica's father was difficult at times. I admire her for writing Driving With Dead People. Although her story is emotional, it is also enriched with her stories of childhood friends, teenage years, and overcoming her traumatic past only to shine as an adult.
When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?
Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)
And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore? SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?
I went through my shelves in July of this year, and put some of the books on PBS. The trade paperbacks (there were only a few of them) I donated to a Senior Living apartment complex where my mom used to live. I go through my books carefully, reading the back covers or inside sleeves to see if they still interest me. Or I might read the first couple of pages to see if it grabs me. It is then that I usually realize that I have some books that I will probably never read, and can't really remember why I wanted them in the first place! The only reason that I would have to throw a book away, is if it is really damaged. Luckily, I haven't had to do that very often. I think all books deserve a good home!
Suggested by Monibo:
Saw this article (from March) and thought it would make a good BTT confessional question:
Two-thirds of Brits have lied about reading books they haven’t. Have you? Why? What book?
I can't lie about ANYTHING...I am probably the world's worst liar....so I just don't do it. :)
Instead of lying, I give people TMI....Too Much Information. My mom once told me to "not to be so honest"...and to me that is just wrong.
What about you?
Description: How far would you go to protect your family?
Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.
A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.
And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.
As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.
Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.
Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.
This week's movie topic is all about Dads...
Inspired by a weekend visit to Molly's family in honor of her Dad's birthday, this week we are thinking of movies featuring Fathers. Funny ones, inspiring ones, scary ones, demanding ones. They come in all types and therefore the movies give us lots of characters to choose from. Share on your blog movies featuring Dads and then link back here at The Bumbles. And don't forget to visit your fellow participants!
Here are a few of my personal favorites!
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jingle All The Way:
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Howard Langston, a father who has promised his son that he will get anything he wants for christmas. Unfortunately for Howard, his son wants an immensely popular "Turbo Man" action figure. Howard forgets to get it, and since it's Christmas Eve, it's sold out everywhere. Since Howard knows he has let his son down in the past, he goes on a quest to track down a "Turbo Man" action figure, and will stop at nothing to get his son the gift that he wants.
Robert De Niro in A Bronx Tale:
