Somebody's Daughter by Ashley Ford

This memoir of a Midwestern black woman's rise to adulthood from a multiply traumatic childhood is on the one hand very straight forward, but just underneath the surface it is much more complicated. The author relates a childhood where she felt like a bad child, where she struggled with being seen and feeling wanted. She was at once surrounded by family, but not always protected by them, and many parts of what happened to her before she left home are hard to read. Then underneath all this is the ripple effect of her much adored father going to prison. At no point does she imply there is anything unjust about it, that he did indeed do the crime he was imprisoned for. When she was a child she did not know what it was, and but as a teen she learns that he raped two women, knowledge that she has trouble grappling with. The way all of this ripples through her family is another layer to this book. In the end, the author has shared her thoughts and observations, warts and all, and that is what sets her memoir apart. She's a woman unafraid to face herself and share what she sees, which she does with admirable realism, humor and, heart.