Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir
by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
|
|
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
This book is not in any lists. Go add it to a list.
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 242)
Read in March, 2006
When Mary-Ann Tirone Smith was in fifth grade, one of her classmates was raped and murdered. If you've ever been through the violent death of someone close to you (or even someone you're acquainted with), you know the hush that falls around that person's name. People don't want to bring it up. They talk circles around it, they come up with euphemisms that make it less frightening to refer to. For Mary-Ann, the hush was even more drastic. The day after Irene's murder, her desk was removed from th...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone!
What a great memoir of a girl growing up in 1953. It's not your typical 50's picture perfect family. Distance, illness and murder keep things interesting. Her autistic brother, Tyler, chews at his arm if he hears loud noises such as crying, loud talking, or laughing. If you had emotions, you had to stifle the sound...or risk Tyler going beserk. This means, the author, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, never really gets to show her true emotions. Crying? What is that? She is also expected to take ca...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2007
I listened to this one, read by the author which in this case is a good thing.
This memoir is approached with candor and humor, telling the story of the author's childhood, her autistic older brother (in the 50's, when "autism" is unheard of and he is instead referred as to retarded), and the molestation and murder of her 5th grade classmate. She and her classmates are forbidden from discussing the murder of their friend, and subsequently Smith represses the memory of it until sh...more
This memoir is approached with candor and humor, telling the story of the author's childhood, her autistic older brother (in the 50's, when "autism" is unheard of and he is instead referred as to retarded), and the molestation and murder of her 5th grade classmate. She and her classmates are forbidden from discussing the murder of their friend, and subsequently Smith represses the memory of it until sh...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2008
Part memoir, part true-crime. Overall, a very sobering story. Mainly an account of how a suburban, working-class community in 1950's Connecticut loses it's innocence. There is an interesting parallel drawn between the author's autistic brother and the serial killer who murders a neighborhood child, exploring the nature of mental illness and culpability. The relationship between her father and brother is particularly heart-wrenching. I'm not sure if I liked the writer's style but the content of t...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
Really moving story of the author growing up in Hartford, CT in the 1950's with her autistic brother and family with Italian and French Canadian roots. A truly disturbing horrific event changes everything and years later she explores its affect on her since she never was allowed closure or even an opportunity to deal with it. I couldn't put the book down and read it straight through in 6 hours. Somehow, someway, I felt a connection to Tirone-Smith. I found humor in her descriptions of her aut...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
people interested in Hartford history
This book was a facinating look at a period of Hartford's history. The story was gripping, amazing and well told- about a girl growing up in a Hartford neighborhood after the World War II when a sexual predator assaults one pre-teen and assaults and murders another.
However, the end where this biography feels a bit like a 'and then I did this... 'and then I did that. It also seemed to end in a rather a and 'this is the quick update'- these people are alive, these people are dead. I think...more
However, the end where this biography feels a bit like a 'and then I did this... 'and then I did that. It also seemed to end in a rather a and 'this is the quick update'- these people are alive, these people are dead. I think...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I grew up in Connecticut and must admit I was a little biased as I read this book. I felt a sense of pride as I checked of the list of locations that I was familiar with.
What starts off as a touching childhood memoir turns into a search for the truth about a classmate's murderer. At first the two plot lines don't seem to be linked, but the author does a respectful job at tying the two storylines together. Overall, a satisfying, yet compelling, read.
What starts off as a touching childhood memoir turns into a search for the truth about a classmate's murderer. At first the two plot lines don't seem to be linked, but the author does a respectful job at tying the two storylines together. Overall, a satisfying, yet compelling, read.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2005
My childhood friends frequently comment with surprise about the things I remember from when we were young. Mary-Ann Tirone Smith, the author of Girls of Tender Age, remembers details from her childhood like I do. I was fascinated by her family's way of adapting their lives around her brother's illness. I was fascinated, too, by the author's research and attempt to re-create the life of her friend's murderer. I recommend this book to any reader.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2005
This is a memoir written by a woman raised in a working class family in the post WWII era. While the book is ostensibly about the murder of her fourth-grade classmate (hence the title), it also an interesting story of the author's relation to her autistic brother, and what it means to grow up working class, Catholic, and urban in this era and then become a writer. Deals with tough subjects without becoming melodramatic or self-indulgent.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2007
the early descriptions of tirone smith's childhood are absolutely hilarious, and then suddenly she comes to the end of her childhood: the murder of a schoolmate. this incident is the lens she uses to look back on her childhood, and winds up researching quite a bit about the man convicted of the murder. also a lot about living with her autistic brother, who she writes about so lovingly and also wittily.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2008
I thought this book would tell more of a childhood story but I was pleasantly surprised how the author jumped back and forth from childhood experiences to adulthood. It was an innovative way to read how the perpective of a child differs from that an an adult and how you have to "work through" childhood issues to reach your potential as an adult.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
A witty and poignant look at life in a very specific time and place, and the violent crime that haunted the area. The author does a great job with this, but gets bogged down in redundant details of the crime which completely interrupts the flow of the story. Overall, though, really good. A couple of parts had me laughing hysterically.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2008
Memoir of growing up in a 1950's family of modest means and the effect a local murder has on the author, her family and her neighborhood. Filled with period details and social observation. Especially touching was the plight of her family due to the strains of raising an autistic child, especially when it was so alien and misunderstood.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I agree with Jessica's review - "the first half is 3, the second half is 2." It seemed as if the book was written by two separate authors with different goals in mind for the book. I would not recommend it. There are SO many other wonderful memoirs to spend one's time reading. Read The Glass Castle instead.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I LOVED this book. I also tend to love memoirs. I especially liked reading about a Catholic family in the fifties...it helped me understand my mom and her generation better. In addition this author has a wonderful style, I found I couldn't put the book down!
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in November, 2007
A memoir, a murder mystery, a psychopathic profile, all in one. I would actually give this one 3 and a half stars. Very readable. Two little girls growing up in the 1950's. One lives to tell about it. Compassionate and insightful.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
A memoir...woman's brother has autism, family's denial of what's really happening with him. But she grows up to be a writer and writes about a murder of a child that happened in her neighborhood as a child. I liked this a lot.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
I read this book in one sitting. Mary-Ann Tirone Smith wrote one of my favorite novels: The Book of Phoebe. Tirone Smith tells a great story and draws a colorful and detailed picture of Hartford, Conn. in the early 1950's.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
Sooooo good!! Funny and touching...some parts are a bit hard to read as the author recalls the brutal murder of a childhood friend....but a great, fast memoir.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
recommends it for:
anyone who loves memoirs
Not a typical "coming of age" memoir. I really like her writing style: easy to follow with a shots of sarcasm. This books was a salve for her childhood wound.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
