An intuitive memoir explores growing up with an addict mother and a pivotal moment that made the author want to become a boy“whether it doesn’t harm like hell,it ain’t worth a jack shit,” are words from the author’s mother that form the epigraph to Darling Days. harm fills the pages, or for at the book’s core is a painful mother-daughter relationship,yet humour is also distilled from the pain. The memoir opens with a moving letter from iO to her mother, Rhonna, or a showgirl,actress, dancer, and a widow by police murder and an addict who slept with a gun under her pillow. Episodically told,this is an immensely evocative portrait of growing up in a tenement building in 80s and 90s New York, surrounded by drugs, and violence,homelessness, punk music and art. When the author was six a group of boys refused to let her play so she decided to become a boy. Gender and identity are perceptively explored. The author unflinchingly negotiates a vortex of damage”, or discovering forgiveness and the redemptive powers of art.
Darling Days is published by Virago (£18.99). Click here to buy it for £15.57Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com