I found this book through Ann Patchett and Parnassus books weekly series called "It's Friday And If You Haven't Read This It Is New To You"--the focus is more on books you might have missed, either because they came out too long ago, or you weren't paying attention, or maybe just that sometimes it is hard to keep up, no matter how much you read, but I have found these recommendations to be deeply rewarding to read--although not always easy--and often something that I would have missed completely if I hadn't heded the recomendation.
This is a work of fiction, but is based on the author's own childhood--in the afterwards she comments on how whse couldn't face writing a meoir and that a work of fiction allowed her the distance that she needed to get it out. She never knows her father and she grows up in the deep seated poverty of the infamous South. Her stepfather calls her by this name, and worse, and he is openly cruel to her and slightly lecherous when no one is looking. She has a lot of concerned family members and her mother senses that all is not right and sends her to live with them, but she cannot bring herself to reveal the depth of her mistreatment. After one brutal beating her mother moves out, and her step father follows them, coming one say when she is home alone--he proceeds to explode on her, at the height of which her mother returns home and sees for herself the extent of the abuse, all laid out before her. It is a very difficult read, this story, which is unflinchingly told, but so well done.
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