The Warmest December - Softcover

McFadden, Bernice L.

4.18

2,315 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452282918 ISBN 13: 9780452282919

Publisher: Plume, 2002

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KIenzie's childhood in the Lowe home in apartment A5 is fraught with violence, alcoholism, and abuse, and the young woman dreams of escaping her own life. By the author of Sugar. Reprint.

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About the Author:

Bernice L. McFadden is the author of the knock-out best-seller, Sugar, which was published in 2000 to remarkable critical acclaim. Her forthcoming novel, This Bitter Earth, will be published by Dutton in 2002. She lives in Brooklyn where she is working on her next novel.

From Publishers Weekly:

"Now and then I forget things.... One day last week I forgot that I hated my father... " McFadden's graphic, poignant second novel (following her praised debut, Sugar) charts the resonating legacy that alcoholic parents pass on to their children through the cycle of addiction and domestic violence. Narrator Kenzie Lowe, an African-American woman in her 30s on welfare, has used alcohol to repress the memories of abuse she suffered growing up in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, caught in the physical and emotional grip of her whiskey-swilling father, Hyman Lowe. As Hy-Lo (a name that reflects his erratic mood swings) lies comatose in his hospital bed, dying of liver disease, Kenzie finds herself in the grip of buried memories. Deftly evoking the turbulence of Kenzie's tormented recollections, McFadden builds tension as Kenzie's subconscious releases events from a fearful childhood dominated by Hy-Lo's sadistic punishments. Incidents where he burned a cigarette into her palm, broke her ribs with lashes from his belt, knocked out her mother's teeth and terrorized her brother, effectively causing his death, graphically illustrate a child's powerlessness in the grip of an appallingly abusive parent. Seamless transitions between Kenzie's past and her present life anchored by AA sessions imbue this difficult tale with dramatic suspense. While McFadden's decision to tie up loose ends into a neatly contrived ending may seem facile, its cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears. Agent, James Vines. (Jan. 15)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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