PRO CONNECT
A memoir gives readers a sense of what it was like to grow up in rural South Dakota in the 1940s; it was not a life for the faint-hearted.
Leite’s given name is Evelyn, but she was called Bubbles for most of her childhood (the book covers her life up to age 13). She was the only girl in the family. Her parents, Lon and Edith Jones, were from quite different backgrounds. But somehow they made a go of it. This was farm life in South Dakota back in the ’40s. Like many other rural families, the Joneses had no electricity and no plumbing. In the summer, they sweltered, and in the winter, they were often snowed in. Mama’s health was precarious, and Daddy sometimes got liquored up, but he was a hard worker, and she made do with what they had. There are strange episodes in the memoir, such as the one focusing on a man named Aldren, who worked for a month, disappeared, came back in his own Piper Cub plane, then left just as mysteriously. There were the scary, proverbial dirty old men, and that trauma is not to be trivialized, but these were brief encounters, and the author recounts that she slipped away, physically unharmed. Her infant brother died, and the wake and funeral coincided with Christmas (and later, Mama had a miscarriage). Leite’s young faith was tested (“Who does God think he is?”). But there were good times as well: county fairs, first crushes, horses for the kids, and pageants at the tiny, one-room school. Yet throughout all this, the author was very insecure and needy for her parents’ love. She sums up her young self as having “a heart full of love and a head full of fear.”
According to Leite, “Dad killed his pain with alcohol. Mom killed hers with the Bible.” Readers will suspect this will be more fully covered in future volumes because this book is the first installment of a series called Blood, Sex, and Tears. In this entry, the author does a good job with the voice of her child self. The style is a bit jumpy: She can be describing a painful rebuke from her father and then suddenly shift to the exciting first day of a new school term. The memoir reads almost like a series of striking diary entries, which is perhaps appropriate. The book sees itself as a contribution to the literature of abuse and healing. Leite is a health professional, and the frontmatter (endorsements, a disclaimer, etc.) paints a very bleak picture of what is to follow. And yet, despite the hard times, the primitive living, Daddy’s drinking, and so forth, many readers will describe this as a loving family—indeed, a closeknit one where “Just fine, thank you” is an act of loyalty rather than emotional suppression. But the very last sentence in the engrossing work gives readers a grim hint of what will be revealed in the coming volumes, when young Leite says: “I can’t know the danger ahead and the destruction that continues to build for our family.”
A vivid and rewarding look at a time and place long gone.
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.