KooKooLand
by Gloria Norris
Buy on AmazonIt's the 1960s in New Hampshire, and Gloria Norris is growing up in the projects with her family. A photo might show a happy, young family, but only a dummkopf would believe that. Jimmy's a wiseguy who relies on charm, wit and an unyielding belief that he's above the law; and his youngest daughter, Gloria, is just like him. Or at least, she knows that she needs to stay on his good side. When an unspeakable act of violence shakes her to her core, Gloria's fiery determination takes shape and she sets herself on a path away from the cycle of violence whirling around her.
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"Gloria Norris’ memoir Kookooland describes the violent projects of Manchester, N.H., with its race tracks and drive-ins, con men, rat hunts at the dump, and the river that “sliced through Manchester like a wet, oily knife.” Violence is omnipresent in her own family and those around her. As in a tyranny, in an abusive family you either find small ways to dissent or you rebel and perish, or you decide to survive at all costs. Norris exactly captures the chilly calculus of abuse: What it would cost her to disagree out loud? But what it would cost her to stay silent?"
NPR Books We Love — 2016 · apps.npr.org