The Warmest December
by Bernice L. McFadden
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bernice L. McFaddenEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-12-31
ISBN: 0452282918
Number of pages: 239
Publisher: Plume
Book Reviews of The Warmest December
Book Review: MOVING AND SAD....BUT BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Bernice Mcfadden has written another masterpiece which draws the reader into the violent life of young Kenzie Lowe, and her brother Malcolm. Her world is full of darkness...shadows spread by her father, Hy-Lo. The author does an excellent job of taking the reader from from the present of the adult Kenzie--where she begins her vigil at her father's deathbed--to the past of the child, and her ugly memories. Kenzie's memories are nothing pleasant; her father was an alcoholic, and a violent one. Her childhood memories were of walking on eggshells around her father, never quite sure what would ignite the flame of the dragon that lived within him. Hy-Lo routinely beat Kenzie's mother Della, and brother Malcolm. None were spared; especially painful is the recollection of the death of her beloved cat Priscilla at her father's hand.
Now an adult, Kenzie must deal with her own struggles with the bottle, and come to terms with everything that she has been through. Kenzie has never referred to her father as Dad and has never held love in her heart for him. But the bedside vigils lead to a conversation with Nurse Dianne, an old childhood friend of Hy-Lo and his brothers, who sheds some light on Hy-Lo's own troubled childhood at the hand of his cruel mother Gwyneth. Through Dianne, Kenzie is finally able to see her father as something other then the victimizer that he had been to her and her family, and can perhaps reach beneath all of the hate that she feels for him to find at least a little compassion.
Difficult material, but one cannot not help but love the writing of this author. If nothing else, Ms. McFadden is never one to shy away from difficult subject matter.
DYB
Summary of The Warmest December
Buoyed by the lyrical, redemptive voice that distinguished McFadden's acclaimed debut novel, this new book tells the powerful, deeply moving story of one family and the alcoholism and abuse that marked their lives forever. Moving fluidly between the past and the present - between a young girl choosing which belt she'll be whipped with each night and her older self at the bedside of her dying father - it is an ultimately cathartic tale of hope, healing and forgiveness.Family Saga Books
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