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Rating: 
Summary: Devotion
Review: I am a person who finishes a book of this length in a day. But this book I held onto for weeks. Such extraordinary courage and objectivity it must have taken to write this book. One should be proud. My Holiday Greetings to Kim Rich and her family.
Rating:
Summary: Devotion
Review: I am a person who finishes a book of this length in a day. But this book I held onto for weeks. Such extraordinary courage and objectivity it must have taken to write this book. One should be proud. My Holiday Greetings to Kim Rich and her family.
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully moving memoir of a daughter searching for home
Review: I read this book after seeing the movie 'Johnny's Girl' which is based on Kim Rich's life story. As I suspected, the book offered a fuller portrait of the struggles Rich endured and the sense of survial she must have felt. Her writing style is fluid and funny and moving and I recommend this book to readers who value excellent literarily nonfiction. I look forward to her next book!
Rating:
Summary: Not exactly the parents from the Brady Bunch
Review: Kim Rich, who grew up in Anchorage during the 60s and 70s, had the parents from hell: Mom was a prostitute who ended her years in a mental hospital, and dad was an operator of illegal gambling joints who was eventually murdered due to a dispute over ownership of a massage parlor. Her parents tried to create the facade of a respectable middle-class family when Kim was a child, but all for naught; Kim imparts such experiences as being mistaken by the police for a prostitute, at age 13, when they raided her house. I sense writing the book was an act of therapy for the author, who was trying to reconcile the fact that although her parents loved her, they were, at the core, bad people. It is deeply moving to see how the author struggled to have a normal childhood and normal teenage years despite the underworld characters who surrounded her and the emotional baggage her parents saddled her with. This well-written, articulate book is also a portrayal of what Anchorage, Alaska, was like during the 60s and 70s.
Rating:
Summary: wonderfully moving memoir of a daughter searching for home
Review: This is a very interesting book for anyone who has wondered what life was like in Anchorage prior to the oil boom. It the story of a small time punk who proceeds to get involved in a variety of cheap stunts that all revolve around either gambling, prostitution or racketeering. While it sounds depressing, actually it is a glimpse into the highly spirited society (admittedly the underbelly) that made Alaska such an exciting place to live. For anyone who thinks Alaska is all about gortex or salmon, this is a must read.
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