Change Me Into Zeus's DaughterSimon and Schuster, 27 янв. 2002 г. - Всего страниц: 320 A haunting and triumphant story of a difficult and keenly felt life, Change Me into Zeus's Daughter is a remarkable literary memoir of resilience, redemption, and growing up in the South. Barbara Robinette Moss was the fourth in a family of eight children raised in the red-clay hills of Alabama. Their wild-eyed, alcoholic father was a charismatic and irrationally proud man who, when sober, captured his children's timid awe, but when (more often) drunk, roused them from bed for severe punishment or bizarre all-night poker games. Their mother was their angel: erudite and stalwart -- her only sin her inability to leave her husband for the sake of the children. Unlike the rest of her family, Barbara bore the scars of this abuse and neglect on the outside as well as the inside. As a result of childhood malnutrition and a complete lack of medical and dental care, the bones in her face grew abnormally ("like a thin pine tree"), and she ended up with what she calls "a twisted, mummy face." Barbara's memoir brings us deep into not only the world of Southern poverty and alcoholic child abuse but also the consciousness of one who is physically frail and awkward, relating how one girl's debilitating sense of her own physical appearance is ultimately saved by her faith in the transformative powers of artistic beauty: painting and writing. From early on and with little encouragement from the world, Barbara embodied the fiery determination to change her fate and achieve a life defined by beauty. At age seven, she announced to the world that she would become an artist -- and so she did. Nightly, she prayed to become attractive, to be changed into "Zeus's daughter," the goddess of beauty, and when her prayers weren't answered, she did it herself, raising the money for years of braces followed by facial surgery. Growing up "so ugly," she felt the family's disgrace all the more acutely, but the result has been a keenly developed appreciation for beauty -- physical and artistic -- the evidence of which can be seen in her writing. Despite the deprivation, the lingering image from this memoir is not of self-pity but of the incredible bond between these eight siblings: the raucous, childish fun they had together, the making-do, and the total devotion to their desperate mother, who absorbed most of the father's blows for them and who plied them with art and poetry in place of balanced meals. Gracefully and intelligently woven in layers of flashback, the persistent strength of Barbara Moss's memoir is itself a testament to the nearly lifesaving appreciation for literature that was her mother's greatest gift to her children. |
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17 | |
Anniston Alabama 1990 | 37 |
Birmingham Alabama | 53 |
Kimberly Alabama | 129 |
Anniston Alabama | 203 |
Des Moines Iowa 1987 | 293 |
Anniston Alabama 1990 | 303 |
Anniston Alabama 1984 | 307 |
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Alice Ann and John arms asked Aunt Janet baby bedroom beer began Birmingham blue bottle boys chair chest cigarette climbed clothes couch Dad's dark David Junior Doris Ann Dorris dropped Eastaboga Edson eyes face feet fingers floor front door Gardendale gonna hair hand head held inside Jake's jumped kids Kimberly kitchen knew laughed leaned lifted lips Little Debbie living room looked Mother mouth moved never night nodded Pabst Blue Ribbon piano picked play pocket porch pulled pushed Ralph RC Cola Rex Morgan Robert Ray rocking screamed shirt shoes shot shoulder shouted Shriners Silly Putty sitting smiled Southpaw stared steps Stewart and David stood stopped talk teeth thought told took tossed turned Uncle Jake waited walked wanted watched whispered Wild Irish Rose Willie window yard yelled
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Стр. 21 - If seven maids with seven mops Swept it for half a year, Do you suppose,' the Walrus said, 'That they could get it clear?' 'I doubt it,' said the Carpenter, And shed a bitter tear.
Стр. 9 - IF I make the lashes dark And the eyes more bright And the lips more scarlet, Or ask if all be right From mirror after mirror, No vanity's displayed: I'm looking for the face I had Before the world was made.
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Dixie's Forgotten People, New Edition: The South's Poor Whites Wayne Flynt Ограниченный просмотр - 2004 |