Reviews

Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss

karolinatx's review

4.0

Rather than compare this memoir to [b:Angela's Ashes|252577|Angela's Ashes|Frank McCourt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173155771s/252577.jpg|2883783], I think that I would draw a comparison to Mary Karr's [b:The Liars' Club|14241|The Liars' Club|Mary Karr|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309210940s/14241.jpg|1269768]. The books are quite similar: young girl in the south growing up in poverty with an abusive/drunk father and an oddly artistic/educated mother who doesn't quite fit the picture. Unlike Karr's poetic lyricism, though, Moss sticks to the facts. She describes her childhood growing up dirt poor in rural Alabama with her 7 brothers and sisters in exhilarating detail, recollecting the days when her alcoholic father drank away all the money and there was nothing to eat in the house. Nothing. The book has a very odd chronological sequence -- Moss jumps to and fro from childhood to adulthood to somewhere in between from page to page. Her hatred and wild love for her parents is fascinating and infuriating both -- one simply cannot believe that people live in such a way and survive. Perhaps not as beautifully told as others, and leaving many gaps, but a riveting tale nonetheless.