Painful Listen

This is my current audiobook listen.  I usually only listen to audiobooks in the car, and since I don’t get out much, it took me a really long time to get through the last few – all part of the Rick Riordan Presents catalog

Being middle grade fiction, these books under Riordan’s imprint are generally silly and full of adventure.  I find myself laughing often, crying sometimes, fully invested in the characters and their goals.

Barbara Kingsolver writes books for grown ups.  She and Amy Tan are my favorite non-children’s lit authors.  So when I heard about this one and that it’s an Oprah Book Club, I had to get it.  And now, there’s a few months before the next Rick Riordan Presents comes out, so I can listen without delaying those books that bring me joy.

I’m only on chapter 7 out of 64 chapters, and I’m already feeling like I’m going to need therapy.  I don’t know how Kingsolver writes these things, unless she’s experienced them, personally, but she has absolutely nailed the relationship between a young teenager and an asshole step father.

I feel like she’s narrating my childhood.  It gives me anxiety.  He says the ugliest, most hateful things to a kid who never does anything except be a kid.  Mine would tell me I looked like a hooker.  In fairness, it was the 80’s, so I probably did, but you don’t say that to a 12 year old in front of company.

This is the man that I now consider my dad.  We all had a lot of growing up to do, and he chose to grow toward being a better person.  I’m glad I grew enough to welcome the person who he became, because listening to this story brings back a lot of painful and hard stuff.  But he became the dad I’d always wanted.  I hope the kid in this book is as lucky.