Jeannie Hudson's Blog: Bookmarks - Posts Tagged "disfunction"
5 Stars for THE SUMMER OF ORDINARY WAYS
I lived in several towns in MN some years
back, a total of twenty years. I lived in Morgan the last half of my stay. Morgan is home to barely a thousand souls in the midst of some of the finest farming country in the world. A few months before I was set to move back to the West where I was born and bred, I saw a review in PEOPLE for a novel set near Sleepy Eye, MN which was a mere twelve miles from Morgan. Indeed, I traveled to Sleepy Eye every week to run errands for my mother-in-law. The review of THE SUMMER OF ORDINARY WAYS caught my attention. The author was named Helget and I knew of many Helgets in the area. I quickly found the book, read it and was shocked to my core. The story wasn't fiction but memoir and the experiences of Nicole Lea Helget spoke of truly ungodly disfunction among her family who was quite famous as it turned out. Her father and uncle had been major league baseball players for a time before their demons defeated them. Her mother and grandmother are scary women who have learned to accept just about anything as 'okay' as long as no one finds out about it. Such as the time her father murders a milk cow with a pitchfork because she wouldn't cooperate, and all grandma can think about is getting the carcass to the butcher before the meat goes bad. As an animal lover and advocate, I found this book barely readable, yet the writer in me, applauds it as one of the most powerful works I've ever read. Kudos to Nicole Lea Helget for her courage. After I left Morgan, MN, I
was told her mother sued her to get her to retract the story. As far as I know,
she refused. I give THE SUMMER OF ORDINARY WAYS five stars.
back, a total of twenty years. I lived in Morgan the last half of my stay. Morgan is home to barely a thousand souls in the midst of some of the finest farming country in the world. A few months before I was set to move back to the West where I was born and bred, I saw a review in PEOPLE for a novel set near Sleepy Eye, MN which was a mere twelve miles from Morgan. Indeed, I traveled to Sleepy Eye every week to run errands for my mother-in-law. The review of THE SUMMER OF ORDINARY WAYS caught my attention. The author was named Helget and I knew of many Helgets in the area. I quickly found the book, read it and was shocked to my core. The story wasn't fiction but memoir and the experiences of Nicole Lea Helget spoke of truly ungodly disfunction among her family who was quite famous as it turned out. Her father and uncle had been major league baseball players for a time before their demons defeated them. Her mother and grandmother are scary women who have learned to accept just about anything as 'okay' as long as no one finds out about it. Such as the time her father murders a milk cow with a pitchfork because she wouldn't cooperate, and all grandma can think about is getting the carcass to the butcher before the meat goes bad. As an animal lover and advocate, I found this book barely readable, yet the writer in me, applauds it as one of the most powerful works I've ever read. Kudos to Nicole Lea Helget for her courage. After I left Morgan, MN, I
was told her mother sued her to get her to retract the story. As far as I know,
she refused. I give THE SUMMER OF ORDINARY WAYS five stars.
Bookmarks
Words of wisdom from an author who is an avid reader and loves sharing her point of view on the works she reads. Jeannie has gathered a vast amount of knowledge during the 40 years working through var
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