Book #6: Roseflower Creek

Ninety-two reviews on Amazon. Seventy-three of them 5 stars. That's got to be a decent sign, and I have to say I agree with those seventy-three people. The odd thing is how it's possible to love a book so much when it makes you feel completely and utterly terrible.

Jackie Lee Miles' first novel Roseflower Creek is written in the voice of 10-year-old Lori Jean, a poor, uneducated girl growing up in 1950s rural Georgia. You learn in the first sentence of the book that she's dead. She goes back and shares the story of her ten short years of life in broken Southern-ese. This mainly centers around living with her abusive, alcoholic, criminal stepfather, Ray, and her mother, who lets Ray walk all over both of them. On top of Lori Jean's terrible home life, there are many other losses, tragedies, and injustices that she has to face along the way.

Lori Jean's narration is so innocent. She has lived through enough hell to make her grow up faster than she should have, but she talks about her life with all the simplicity that a 10-year-old should have. Miles has written this book beautifully, making it sound exactly like a child in rural Georgia was speaking right into your ear, and certainly makes a strong impact... a big, huge impact... the kind that reaches right into your sternum, rips out your heart, grinds it up in a blender, and feeds it right back to you.

Seriously, the whole book is depressing, but the last 1/4th just made me want to vomit. It's not overly graphic or anything (in my opinion), it's just the thought of a child living through that... I know it's fiction, but Lori Jean is a representation of plenty of children who live like this every day. It's blood-curdling. And what's even harder to understand is how forgiving Lori Jean is. She holds no grudge. She looks at the lives of those who have mistreated her, and she says she understands why they act the way they do, because they, too, were mistreated as a child. That's an interesting point of view from a victim, and it could easily be up for a lot of debate. I think everyone can agree that a troubled childhood doesn't excuse anyone's behavior later in life, even though it may influence their behavior. There are apparently some readers of this book who completely dismissed the entire thing based on Lori Jean's forgiveness of her abusers, saying that it excused the abusive behavior. I don't think that was what Miles was trying to suggest. Not only does it highlight the vicious cycle of abusees becoming abusers, but also having Lori Jean forgive shows how big and selfless her heart was. Thanks to Ray, she was the one who was served the largest portion of injustice, but she was still worried about Ray and what had happened to him to make him the way he was. I don't think Miles was trying to excuse Ray's behavior when she writes about how Lori Jean feels sorry for him. I think she's trying to show how innocent she is. She's a child. Children believe excuses. If anything, it makes me even more angry about how many cases like Lori Jean's are out there that get ignored because of people believing excuses. I think that was the point Miles was trying to make, and even if it wasn't, that's how I took it.

This is definitely worth the read. You've been warned that it's depressing and hard to stomach, but honestly, this is going on all around us. Even if you don't want to hear or think about it, it's happening. All those kids like Lori Jean deserve to be noticed, and this book forces you to do that.

5/5 stars

Read from February 19, 2011 to February 20, 2011

--C