This is in the spirit of The Glass Castle and Hippie Boy - books about growing up in a rough situation and overcoming. I remember a few years ago there was an author, I think his last name was Fry (sorry, not going to spend time researching it online) - he wrote a memoir, Oprah praised it up and down, then found out it wasn't 100% true, and then she shamed him on TV. I don't think you can say that any of these stories are 100% true. The stories are all built from memories. You know the dialogue is not word for word what happened. So you take them with a grain of salt.
That being said, as I read this story, I just kept thinking, seriously? DCFS was never involved? The other stories I mention above, they weren't quite as bad as this. I think of being a child, and think of the kids that I, unfortunately, made fun of at school. Their appearance definitely wasn't anything as bad, as gross as how this boy describes himself going to school. Teachers really didn't worry?
It was a good story though, and his honesty is appreciated. You almost arrive at a point of thinking there is no way a mother would act this way. Why would a woman who claimed to be so strong, who claimed to be a revolutionary, why would she live that way and permit men to treat her that way? The book makes you think.
(Oh, and I was really bothered by the whole welfare thing. How easy it was, and why someone so against the government would take such advantage.)
Enjoy.
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