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Change Me into Zeus's Daughter: A Memoir (平装)
by Barbara Robinette Moss
| Category:
Memoir, Female writing, American South, Grown-up story, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A remarkable story of resilience and redemption, this book is an important witness to the destructiveness of family secrets and the hope for people demanding change for themselves and their families. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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Lisa Costantino (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
In the tradition of Bastard Out of Carolina and Angela's Ashes, Change Me into Zeus's Daughter chronicles a child's coming of age in an abusive and dirt-poor environment. With the gripping narrative drive of both of those bestselling books, Barbara Robinette Moss's candid yet lyrical account takes hold of our hearts and doesn't let go until the final page. Her story juxtaposes heart-rending adversity with the playful chaos of eight siblings growing up in the 1960s South, with its creeping kudzu and soybean fields, its forthright and sometimes peculiar inhabitants, and its boiling racial tensions.
The hardships related here are both familiar and unique: the Christmas presents exchanged for drink money, the failed businesses, the decrepit shacks that served as temporary homes, the disturbing early-morning discipline. Under the tyrannical rule of a father who "inflicted pain recreationally, both physical and emotional," the only bright spot in Moss's childhood was her mother, Dorris. Slavishly devoted to her husband ("she seemed to crave him as much as he craved alcohol"), Dorris held the family together by absorbing most of the abuse. But in the end she lacked the courage to leave him, and her children had to act as their own protectors. As if poverty and her father's mistreatment weren't enough of a burden, Moss also had to contend with a face disfigured by malnutrition. As a result, she sought refuge in whatever elusive beauty she could find: the poetry her mother taught as a substitute for material things; the fertile, red Alabama soil; the love of her baby sister Janet. Her urge to create beauty and her longing to embody it culminate in surgery that transforms her face but brings with it a crisis of identity.
In her outpouring of memories, Moss occasionally gets lost in her tale, embedding flashback within flashback. More problematic is the portrayal of her father: he's relentlessly cruel until a near-fatal beating, after which he begins to briefly connect with his children. For us, it's too late, and we can only react to his death with a sigh of relief. But these minor quibbles are just that. Moss's extraordinary memoir enthralls us from its alarming introduction - in which Dorris feeds her starving children a meal of potentially poisonous seeds - to its poignant conclusion.
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New York Times Book Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
This divinely titled memoir is... a Deep South cousin to Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." |
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USA Today (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
Elegant and moving... nothing short of an "Angela's Ashes" for Americans, beautifully written in female voice. |
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Kirkus Review (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
A writer remembers the indignities, the poignancies, the cruelties, and the compromises demanded by the deep poverty of her Alabama youth.In her debut volume, Moss says she wishes "to go back in time-to heal old wounds and reclaim my family." Such old wounds-and such a family. Her mother was an ex-Marine with a heart capable of myriad acts of forgiveness for her husband, a drunken, abusive ne'er-do-well whose serial failures as father, husband, and wage-earner would qualify him for a Faulkner novel-or for a guest-spot with Jerry Springer. Moss, along with her numerous siblings, somehow developed the character to persevere, despite (or because of?) Dad's eccentricities and the absence of amenities (like adequate food, clothing, shelter). Moss adopts a rough chronology, occasionally leaping elsewhere in time to visit a moment of particular importance or to prepare us for something of ensuing significance. She begins with a stunning, symbolic account of her mother's preparing a "meal" of seeds they had intended to plant-seeds saturated in pesticide: there is nothing else to eat. With increasing momentum, Moss takes us through a weird series of sensational funhouse incidents. In the 1960s her father yelled out the car window to blacks marching to Washington: "Get a goddamned job!" Cruel classmates, noting Moss's comprehensive dental problems, called her "Bucky Beaver." (She later underwent a painful experimental facial surgery, emerging from it to more closely resemble Zeus's daughter Aphrodite-Moss substitutes "Venus," confusing the Roman and Greek names for the goddess of beauty.) A tornado "sucked from under the porch in a feathery cloud" the chickens they had hoped to raise. Her uncle Jake lost a game of Russian Roulette, blowing part of his skull out onto his front steps. Moss divorced twice (one husband beat her), had a son, went to graduate school. Her father, unable to tolerate chemotherapy, shot himself in the head.A lucid and sometimes lurid reminder that pain, deprivation, and humiliation need not destroy; they can also animate. |
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O. Brown (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
This book is the most beautiful memoir I've ever read and the one of the most memorable books I've ever read in my life. It is about the author's childhood in Alabama, about poverty, abuse, and alcoholism, but even more it is about love, family, and what is "normal". Despite the dark subject it is not a depressing book, but rather, a book of hope and love. I cannot imagine anyone having had a more troubled or abusive childhood than did the author, but the central theme of family love is what, most affects the family members and holds them together above all.
When you finish the book, you are really sorry, as you hate to see it end. Fortunately it continues with a second memoir about the author's life as an adult called "Fierce". Both are worth purchasing in hardback and rereading throughout your life; they are not books to be read once and then donated to a book sale.
It is not simply well-written, but it is so moving, honest, and matter-of-fact, that you really feel like you know and love all of the real people in the author's life. When I read "Alice"'s review (see above... Alice is the author's sister) I was so moved because I feel like I "know" her from the memoir. Of course I don't, but the memoir was that real.
I read this book as slowly as I could to make it last. It was just so good. I can't imagine anyone buying it and thinking they didn't get more than their money's worth, as it delivers on all levels - style of writing, suspense and plot, authenticity and transparency, the ability to draw you into the author's world.
"Fierce" takes place mostly after the author is an adult and leaves home although there are many flashbacks to childhood. Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter is about the author's childhood. I would buy both books together in hardback and save them forever to be read again and again. |
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Melissa McCauley (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
This book is being compared to 'Angela's Ashes' in every review I've seen, and with good reason. Barbara's father shared numerous traits with Frank McCourt's, and the hardships, poverty and many other difficulties faced by both families were somewhat similar. So many sad, crazy, incredible and unbelievable things happen to this family, though - it's one of those 'truth is stranger than fiction' things. If you'd seen a Hollywood movie (and there may very well be one eventually) about this family, you'd say 'yeah, right, all of that couldn't actually happen to a family in real life'. But it did, and their story is amazing, mostly in the sense that it appears that most of the children turned out OK. Much credit is given to their remarkable mother's spirit, teaching the children about art, poetry, theatre and music despite the enormous gulf between such things and this family's daily existence. But I think the kids themselves leaned on each other, and drew from a tough inner strength. Read this book! I admire Barbara Robinette Moss and her entire family. |
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Linda (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
From the first sentence of CHANGE ME INTO ZEUS'S DAUGHTER to the last I was enthralled by the descriptive power and honesty of Barbara Robinette Moss's prose. A book like this makes one happy to be living in what has been called "the age of the memoir" and this memoir centainly ranks among the best along with ANGELA'S ASHES. Ms. Moss has the ability to convey the fear and uncertainties that beset a child growing up in circumstances of abuse, hunger and poverty in a way that cuts to the heart. I am amazed by those people who can survive and even thrive spiritually in such an environment. No doubt her mother's love of literature and music that she conveyed to her children was a positive influence, but I think that Ms. Moss's inborn character and determination is most to be credited for her transformation and success. I was touched by her close relationships with her siblings and the devotion of her Aunt Janet through years of chaos. I would recommend this book without reservation. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
Writing at its best, is lived rather than read. Occasionally we have the privilege to be drawn into someone's experiences with such power and clarity that we are possessed by their history and translated into it. Barbara Moss' story makes us members of the family as she weaves gripping tales of poverty, alcoholism, sickness and neglect into a book that you can't stop reading. As difficult as the circumstances are, the story is never without hope. The characters are in many ways ordinary and flawed and in spite of that, are amazingly appealing, interesting, funny, and often heroic as they struggle with the situations that compose their existence. In her writing she is able to depict seemingly ordinary events, turning them into the human essences that touch our deepest emotional levels, where we live and laugh and cry and love. |
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Lucie (MSL quote), USA
<2007-11-26 00:00>
Barabara Robinette Moss is truely an inspiration to me. Reading and enjoying her memoir, has only made me wish her book had never ended. I felt so special talking to Barbara Moss one Saturday afternoon, and I must say, I felt so emotional. Her book made me feel as though I were right beside her, knowing how she felt. Speaking with her made me even more sure that she is as beautiful on the phone as she is in her book. She made everthing seem so vivid. Thanks for the perfect memoir. (And if she's ever in Miami, I would very much like to meet her.) I absolutely could not put her book down. I recommend everyone read this book, especially when you may have thought you had it bad. Thank you. Lucie. |
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1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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