THE END OF TENNESSEE

A harrowing debut memoir in which the author describes her extremely difficult childhood.

When she was 12, Hanson recalls, “my family of eight lived in a two-bedroom trailer in Sullivan County, Tennessee, and nearly every night for dinner the children ate popcorn.” Her mother was a cruel woman who aligned her family with strict, vaguely religious guidance: School was “evil,” so attendance was forbidden, and any effort to be social or independent was quickly branded sinful. Vengeful and manipulative, she leaned on preteen Hanson for child rearing. “I was rough,” Hanson writes, “a girl with bitten nails and rashes on my hips from carrying the children she kept having.” The author quickly learned that “there was no safe space under my parents’ roof.” The specter of mental illness lurks beneath these distressing vignettes. Hanson’s mother had “good days” quickly followed by “a relapse of the unknown sickness [she] claimed to have.” Later she writes, “I suspect she did pray, sometimes getting the answers she wanted between burning herself with cigarettes and sleeping the day away.” The author tried to run away from home, finally cutting ties at 18. Though understandably haunted by memories of the younger siblings left behind, she recognizes the impossibility of living a healthy life and remaining connected with her family. Hanson’s tender, lyrical prose offers an unsuspecting sense of solace and hope. Despite all she has faced, it’s clear that the adult who emerged from relentless trauma is capable of compassion. While she doesn’t seek forgiveness or answers—“I understand we can never go back and that things cannot be set right”—she strives to accept her awful past for what it was and take yet another step away from it, onward.

A book about disturbing experiences, related with cleareyed catharsis and memorable prose.