DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE MULE GOING BLIND

A memoir reflects on a woman’s struggles to leave behind the abject poverty and physical abuse of her early years and follow her belief that life held something better for her.

Born in Troy, Alabama, Tucker was the fourth of her parents’ seven children. Her father, John, worked in the mill and supplemented the family income by digging graves and hunting opossums and squirrels. The author recounts that her mother ran the household, meting out harsh discipline, especially to Tucker and her favorite older sister, Johnnie. They were, the author writes, the “functional poor—no running water, electricity, or indoor toilet, and we sometimes ran out of food.” But they got by until the mill burned down. In 1956, when she was 9 years old, Tucker and her family joined the ranks of the Black migrant farmers who moved up and down the East Coast between Utica, New York, and Belle Glade, Florida. The dislocations led to the breakup of her parents’ marriage. Her father remained in Belle Glade, where he found full-time employment as a sod stacker, and her mother traveled back to Utica with the children, where she became involved with a married man. Eventually, determined to create a new life, Tucker fled to California with the man who later would become her husband. She recalls her life through vividly described, poignant episodes, moving back and forth in time and place. In her dispiriting and sometimes chaotically and repetitiously presented memoir, she recalls poverty, sexual abuse, teenage pregnancies, and an intermittently violent husband. In the most heartbreaking and complicated sections, she writes about choosing, at age 19, to give up her twin daughters right after birth and the lifelong emotional consequences of that decision for both herself and her babies. With brutal honesty, she acknowledges her personal failings and the poor choices she made along the way. But she also appreciates her strength and determination to follow her dreams. She proudly cites her work with disadvantaged teenagers and recounts her accomplishments as a teacher, author, and provider for her three other children.

A meandering but heartfelt shoutout of encouragement to those besieged by life’s travails.