A review by sharonfalduto
Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston

A memoir, a series of vignettes that add up to a picture of an impoverished life in the slums of New York in the 1970s and 1980s. It sounds like it would be depressing, and I was almost afraid to read it, but it really isn't too bad. Even though her life sounds a bit soul crushing, she seemed content with her life--sure, she didn't have a father, but hardly anyone else had a father or any money, either. She has a nice, spare evocative style. Even events that would have been played for huge tragedy in other books (like a house fire) and related in a matter-of-fact way without a lot of hand wringing.