THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER

Poet Gibson (One Body, 2007, etc.) applies keen intellect to the formidable task of recapitulating the essentials of one’s childhood.

In this memoir of family life, specifically the early years with her parents, the author dissects the rights and wrongs and confounding mysteries of parental and sibling relationships. Gibson was raised in Richmond, Va., in the 1950s and ’60s by white, fundamentalist-leaning Christian parents who demonstrated patronizingly (but not aggressively) racist tendencies. Gibson and her sister constantly battled for the attention of their mother, a self-styled “Lady” who exerted constant control as a function of both love and duty. Their father struggled with the pressures of social expectations, class and race. The author’s remarkable facility with the language of emotion and personal insight allows her to share the flow of youthful feelings that began to push her in her own direction, away from the narrowly defined “family values” espoused by her parents. For example, Dad often used his belt as punishment for serious misbehavior or disrespect. In Gibson’s mind, this brutal demonstration of so-called parental love may be compared to the biblical Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac for the love of God. One day, finding herself sequestered in reflection under a lilac bush, watching her father mow the lawn, she realizes: “I could run away and not leave the backyard.” Eventually, however, she does get away physically, and spiritually, from her conventional family and its precepts. Years later, her father overcome by alcoholism and emotional collapse, her sister disabled by a stroke and her mother aging, Gibson returns to find bonds that had never really broken.

Tensions and tenderness, beautifully rendered.