Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Little Miseries by Kimberly Olson Fakih - Available

Little Miseries

This Is Not a Story About My Childhood

by Kimberly Olson Fakih
Elizabeth Cottle
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Sometimes misery is little, and sometimes it is epic and yawning, capable of swallowing every childhood memory. There are the miseries the Castles will talk about—old family lore about a great great great uncle who was split in two while connecting railroad cars—and the misery none of them will face. There are days at the lake, placid except for inexplicable tension the parents won't address and the three Castle children don't have names for. There are stories about sex and gore at cocktail parties, around bonfires, at sleepovers, in classrooms, and in the newspaper. Everyday growing pains are shadowed by the abduction of a local girl, reports of a massacre of nurses, and the harm done by strangers and by those who are charged to care for children. To survive childhood is to survive all of these miseries and tragedies—because growing up means waking up to a world that can be random and brutal. With some thematic overlap with Rick Moody's The Ice Storm or what Mad Men would have been like if Sally Draper got to tell her side of the story, Little Miseries is set in Iowa and Minnesota in the 60s and 70s, a time and place when parents didn't talk much to their children but certainly talked around them—while dipping into whiskey or rum punch, whether on a long drive, on the beach, or in the comfort of their own home. Little Miseries is a tribute to what it means to come into awareness, to be a part of a family unit, and to bear responsibility for those you loved and who have been harmed along the way.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 10, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666622980
      • File size: 265665 KB
      • Duration: 09:13:28

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 14, 2022
      Children’s book author Fakih (High on the Hog) makes her adult debut with this sharp depiction of a Midwestern girl’s coming-of-age. Kimmy grows up in late 1960s Iowa surrounded by markers of her family’s former fortune as seed magnates. In a series of vignettes, Kimmy, her parents, and two siblings suffer a litany of bad experiences ranging from the quotidian (her mom forces her into dark clothes to “slenderize” her larger figure) to traumatic (a seemingly friendly man nearly kills all the children during an erratic boat trip). As well, Kimmy suspects her grandfather is sexually abusing her younger sister, but her chain-smoking, short-fused mother dismisses the concern. Fakih’s vivid depictions of Kimmy’s adolescent dilemmas blend nostalgia for the period with a visceral sense of her protagonist’s pain, as Kimmy fixates, without really understanding the details, on the real-life murder of Pamela Powers; longs for her mother to appreciate her; and crushes on a dad whose family she babysits for. Despite the lack of a central arc, each episode ably captures Kimmy’s grappling with her place in the world amid adult secrets. Though readers will find the structure lacking, the depiction of a teen navigating a confusing phase of life rings true. Agent: Mary Krienke, Sterling Lord Literistic.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading