What do you think?
Rate this book
Ghostbread
“When you eat soup every night, thoughts of bread get you through.” Ghostbread makes real for us the shifting homes and unending hunger that shape the life of a girl growing up in poverty during the 1970s.One of seven children brought up by a single mother, Sonja Livingston was raised in areas of western New York that remain relatively hidden from the rest of America. From an old farming town to an Indian reservation to a dead-end urban neighborhood, Livingston and her siblings follow their nonconformist mother from one ramshackle house to another on the perpetual search for something better.
Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children—girls in particular—trapped in the cycle of poverty.
Larger cultural experiences such as her love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism inform this lyrical memoir. Livingston firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down.
Along the way, the young Sonja observes the harsh realities her family encounters, as well as small moments of transcendent beauty that somehow keep them going. While struggling to make sense of her world, Livingston perceives the stresses and patterns that keep children—girls in particular—trapped in the cycle of poverty.
Larger cultural experiences such as her love for Wonder Woman and Nancy Drew and her experiences with the Girl Scouts and Roman Catholicism inform this lyrical memoir. Livingston firmly eschews sentimentality, offering instead a meditation on what it means to hunger and showing that poverty can strengthen the spirit just as surely as it can grind it down.
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
109 people are currently reading
1044 people want to read
About the author
Sonja Livingston
11 books114 followersSonja Livingston is the author of four books of literary nonfiction. Her latest, "The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions into Devotion," chronicles her startling return to Catholicism and uses the return to launch various expeditions through space and time to explore Roman Catholic tradition with new eyes. "Ladies' Night at the Dreamland," combines memory, research and imagination to provide poetic profiles of historic women. "Queen of the Fall," weaves together strands of memory with icons from 1980s/90s pop culture, religion and mythology to consider the lives of women, while exploring beauty, fertility and longing. Her award-winning memoir of pervasive childhood poverty, "Ghostbread," was widely adopted for classroom and book club use. Sonja's writing has earned an AWP Book Award in Nonfiction, a NYFA Fellowship, an Iowa Review Award, and a Susan Atefat Essay Prize. She teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
December 11, 2009
Writing about a deprived childhood is tricky. Too stoic, and the reader fails to engage. Too emotional and the reader smells self-pity. So the fact that Sonja Livingston is able to punch right through the shame and ache and hunger to the truth of such a childhood marks her as an emotionally smart and technically gifted writer. Livingston is even-handed in her depictions. She celebrates the good times, the strengths of her family members, and turns an observant child's eye on the hard times. For those who have lived through similar experiences, Livingston's descriptions of her early understanding of what it means to be poor-- "I looked into the black interior of the purse and began to see its emptiness as a weight to be carried"--will resonate. She gives a white-hot treatment of the effects of a childhood plagued by physical and emotional hunger and manages to capture, exactly, the child's view and wrap it in wise prose: "I worried about my hunger, that he might sense it in me, that I might forget myself and eat whatever he offered," and, "...the hungry always return to the very same hand. The hand they know. The one that cannot give." This is a book that will enlighten, will sensitize. With its thoughtful observations rendered in beautiful prose, Ghostbread is an important contribution in the discussion of a problem America is often unwilling to admit it has: the widespread presence of families and children trapped, through no fault of its own, in a permanent underclass.
March 10, 2021
A lyrical memoir about poverty and all of the things that go with it. Livingston is a local of Rochester, NY but the memoir explores the territories beyond Rochester where I live (the rural parts of WNY). The memoir covers early childhood through adolescence. The writing was gorgeous. Each chapter is a vignette of a specific memory or image from Livingston's childhood. I'm so glad that I finally read this!
September 29, 2010
Memoirs are my favorite reads, and Ghostbread is easily going to be added as a favorite! Sonja Livingston pours her heart and soul into her story of growing up during the 1970's in the Rochester, NY area. Living with her single mother and siblings, life was tough. The family was poverty-stricken and times were hard. There was always church in Sonja's life...a bright spot for her to meet friends and neighbors. It took me back to a time when you knew everyone on your block, all of the neighborhood kids played together, and were called in to supper when the streetlights came on. Livingston's prose is gritty and honest...this is a powerful memoir that demands to be read.
May 10, 2011
Living in and through poverty intruigues me. I often wonder how some of my students manage to care about what I teach when I know they are living through a hell I cannot imagine. This woman's story is so poignant because she grew up in Rochester, in a neighborhood I am familiar with and also attended the church where my kids were baptised. Although I do not know her, I find myself craving more information about her and her family. This is not fiction...it is a memoir and I highly recommend it.
April 19, 2010
I heard Sonja read at AWP (she was the non-fiction winner) and it was incredible. Her story is stunning, but it's the way that she tells it, in tantalizing, terrifying bites, like some kind of sweet bookish torture, that blew me away. All that yearning and loss and beauty and horror all mixed up together....mmmm...the very best kind of writing.
March 14, 2015
This book tells with eloquent prose a tale of poverty, neglect and somehow magic of childhood that brings the author to survival and ultimately success. It's evocative where it needs to be and is told with a gentle touch that makes all the more real the stunning success of survival despite crushing circumstances.
November 12, 2018
This book is so raw and real. The writing is impressive and very beautiful. I feel so inspired by this read and will certainly seek out the author's other books. What a treasure to our city to have this author present and representing Rochester in her writing!
March 30, 2021
A simple and powerful memoir
Livingston tells her growing-up story vividly. Your heart aches as she navigates a difficult childhood in an area of upstate New York State that one doesn’t usually associate with having a lot of poverty and slums. I’ve lived in that same area of most of my adult life, completely unaware of all she describes, even though I’m familiar with many of the places in which her story takes place.
Livingston’s piercing writing pulls you into the houses, farms, streets, schools, reservation, churches, and relationships she experienced with no trace of self-pity, anger, blame, or preaching. She lays it before you as a good storyteller does, saying, “Here it is; make of it what you will.” Each story she tells has a point other than “Here’s the not-so-great stuff that happened.”
Even though I knew before reading this book that Sonja, the adult, has surpassed whatever limits her background might have chained her to, I still found myself strongly rooting for young Sonja all the way through.
I highly recommend this book. It’s one of those you’ll still think about long after reading it.
Livingston tells her growing-up story vividly. Your heart aches as she navigates a difficult childhood in an area of upstate New York State that one doesn’t usually associate with having a lot of poverty and slums. I’ve lived in that same area of most of my adult life, completely unaware of all she describes, even though I’m familiar with many of the places in which her story takes place.
Livingston’s piercing writing pulls you into the houses, farms, streets, schools, reservation, churches, and relationships she experienced with no trace of self-pity, anger, blame, or preaching. She lays it before you as a good storyteller does, saying, “Here it is; make of it what you will.” Each story she tells has a point other than “Here’s the not-so-great stuff that happened.”
Even though I knew before reading this book that Sonja, the adult, has surpassed whatever limits her background might have chained her to, I still found myself strongly rooting for young Sonja all the way through.
I highly recommend this book. It’s one of those you’ll still think about long after reading it.
April 30, 2023
Ghostbread could be a quick read, but do yourself a favor and make it a slow read. Such a wonderful read.
March 24, 2010
I'm not given to 5 star ratings easily. They have to be earned and this young author, Sonja Livingston, has a way of writing that simply blows me away. Her style is clear and crisp - straight to the point. Yes, Ghostbread is non-fiction, so you could say this is a memoir. But it's also short stories - a mechanism Livingston uses brilliantly to present her childhood. And let me say now this is not a whining, self-pitying attempt at catharsis. Livingston's use of language is powerful and direct. Speaking of her mother Sonja says, "Her tales were rich in gook and detail. Nothing was left out. Except for fathers. They were ghosts that folded themselves into the edges of her tales, vapors that floated in and out of delivery rooms, with us somehow, but never really showing themselves." I love how the descriptive writing style is neither flowery nor overblown.
Livingston assembled Ghostbread chronologically, which makes sense in that it's helpful for the reader to understand the family history. The author is the 5th child of 7 - most of whom were born of different fathers - and grinding poverty forced multiple moves upon the family. This almost constant moving meant the children never had a real idea of 'home' or stability. Periodically, Livingston would ask her mother why she wasn't like other mothers. "Why don't you have a husband? Why don't you make regular meals? Why don't you teach me to do up my hair?" To which mother, from flinty New Hampshire, would respond, "Live free or die - I'm telling you girl, there's no other way to be." And thus, with those words early in the book, you understand instinctively that these children are on their own.
Mostly, Ghostbread is a book of longing - for understanding; for an engaged mother; for some idea of what a father might be like; for basics like bread to stave of hunger, and a full refrigerator of food; for a sense of self. As a result, Livingston grew up not really knowing who she was, what she wanted, or where she was going. Perhaps through biological fate, her path diverged from that of her peers after high school. Though capable and intelligent, Livingston's main roadblock was not having anyone in front who could guide her to the next chapter of her life - college - and to a future beyond what she could envision.
It's always hardest being the first. It's lonely going down a different path, and yet somehow the author escapes her childhood - but not completely - and not that easily. "I managed to make my way... but remnants of the past remain. Like a ghost, the past is always there, flicking its gauzy fingers my way."
Livingston now works with children and sees herself in some of their narratives. She understands these children and their stories, but this clarity comes with a price. "I celebrate and cry for those who still live in poverty's clutches... I'd love to point them in new directions... ideals and opportunities and social theorizing are just fine, but if you must understand only one thing, it is this: a warm hand and words whispered into the ear are what we want. Paths that can be seen and followed and walked upon are what we most need. And in the end, the thing that feeds us, no matter how tenuous, is what we will reach for."
It's for writing such as this that you should rush out and get this book. Now. Really.
Livingston assembled Ghostbread chronologically, which makes sense in that it's helpful for the reader to understand the family history. The author is the 5th child of 7 - most of whom were born of different fathers - and grinding poverty forced multiple moves upon the family. This almost constant moving meant the children never had a real idea of 'home' or stability. Periodically, Livingston would ask her mother why she wasn't like other mothers. "Why don't you have a husband? Why don't you make regular meals? Why don't you teach me to do up my hair?" To which mother, from flinty New Hampshire, would respond, "Live free or die - I'm telling you girl, there's no other way to be." And thus, with those words early in the book, you understand instinctively that these children are on their own.
Mostly, Ghostbread is a book of longing - for understanding; for an engaged mother; for some idea of what a father might be like; for basics like bread to stave of hunger, and a full refrigerator of food; for a sense of self. As a result, Livingston grew up not really knowing who she was, what she wanted, or where she was going. Perhaps through biological fate, her path diverged from that of her peers after high school. Though capable and intelligent, Livingston's main roadblock was not having anyone in front who could guide her to the next chapter of her life - college - and to a future beyond what she could envision.
It's always hardest being the first. It's lonely going down a different path, and yet somehow the author escapes her childhood - but not completely - and not that easily. "I managed to make my way... but remnants of the past remain. Like a ghost, the past is always there, flicking its gauzy fingers my way."
Livingston now works with children and sees herself in some of their narratives. She understands these children and their stories, but this clarity comes with a price. "I celebrate and cry for those who still live in poverty's clutches... I'd love to point them in new directions... ideals and opportunities and social theorizing are just fine, but if you must understand only one thing, it is this: a warm hand and words whispered into the ear are what we want. Paths that can be seen and followed and walked upon are what we most need. And in the end, the thing that feeds us, no matter how tenuous, is what we will reach for."
It's for writing such as this that you should rush out and get this book. Now. Really.
August 14, 2019
I found Sonja Livingston in an "America" article: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith....
Recently, I decided I'd like to get know her writing better. "Ghostbread" is a must read if you grew up in Rochester, and even if you didn't. Sonja presents the poverty we know exists here in such a way that you vacillate between longing for days gone by and wanting to help fix our city's property problem. More than that, though, her writing style is beautiful, easy to read and relate (Catholic school). Sonja has inspired this 69-year old Rochester native to revisit my desire to attend some writing classes. Writers and Books, here I come. Thank you, Sonja, for your inspiration. On to your next books (I preordered Virgin of Prince Street a while ago and it should be arriving soon).
Recently, I decided I'd like to get know her writing better. "Ghostbread" is a must read if you grew up in Rochester, and even if you didn't. Sonja presents the poverty we know exists here in such a way that you vacillate between longing for days gone by and wanting to help fix our city's property problem. More than that, though, her writing style is beautiful, easy to read and relate (Catholic school). Sonja has inspired this 69-year old Rochester native to revisit my desire to attend some writing classes. Writers and Books, here I come. Thank you, Sonja, for your inspiration. On to your next books (I preordered Virgin of Prince Street a while ago and it should be arriving soon).
July 6, 2010
Sonja Livingston wrote a very lyrical memoir of her childhood years in this book. The style of the book has very short snippets of things that had happened in her life. This made the book read very quickly. The stories she has to tell are very interesting and telling of them truly brings everything to life in this book. I could fully imagine the times, settings, feelings, and even aromas that would be in the air. Sonja did an excellent job with her descriptions that every sense is described and I felt like I was right there along side Sonja. My only complaint is that it really left me wanting MORE! I woud love more details and insight about all the things that happened to Sonja. Thank You for a wonderful free read!!!
January 10, 2016
This was a painful read at times. Sonja Livingston's honest portrayal of living in poverty in the Rochester area was eye opening. After reading about her life, and the many challenges children growing up in a poverty stricken environment face, I wonder how anyone can develop the self motivation to make it out. I can't really rate this book in the usual way - did I love reading it? No, honestly, it made me uncomfortable. But sometimes being uncomfortable, and learning about life outside your own circle is necessary.
March 21, 2010
What an interesting format for a memoir; it's almost a hybrid of poetry and literary nonfiction. So far, I'm rather loving it.
...
This is the sort of memoir I will keep on my shelf, and return to for inspiration. It's lovely.
...
This is the sort of memoir I will keep on my shelf, and return to for inspiration. It's lovely.
May 9, 2011
This book was simple, but it was moving. Some times it is difficult to see that poverty is right where you live. Or you know it is there but don't know anything about it or ignore it. It was eye-opening. Our book club liked it.
October 21, 2012
My cousin, who shares the same hometown as the author, shared this special book with me. IT was heartbreaking but vivid and candid, and explored and illuminated the life of a young girl living through tough times. beautifully written short chapters that could stand alone as essays.
October 26, 2020
A truly magical, glowing memoir of a life of poverty, told in the most lyrical, haunting prose that will stay with you long after you close the last page.
I always have such a hard time reviewing books I absolutely loved. When I finished GHOSTBREAD by Sonja Livingston (U of Georgia Press, 2009), my husband asked, "How many stars?" And I said, "Five." He nodded, slightly unimpressed. And then I followed up with, "Five GLOWING stars." He was astonished. "REALLY?!" Yes, really. And I am not in the habit of handing out five-stars unless I really mean it.
GHOSTBREAD is about living in the raw corners of Western New York. It's about a single mother raising seven kids with five different fathers. Here, we are introduced to Sonja and her mother, her siblings, their neighbors, and other characters in a memoir-in-short-stories, that is, there are 122 small little snapshots, vignettes, if you will, of this challenging life. It's not exactly an 'easy' read because the events that unfold are tough, raw, uncensored. But they are not long. Each story comprises no more than a few pages, sometimes only a long paragraph. Snippets, really. And what is a life but a collection of snippets?
This is a tale of living hand to mouth, of run down vehicles, living in motels, on reservations, in small farming towns in Indiana, on dead-end streets. It's about a mother who was in-over-her-head, who couldn't make ends meet, but was somehow able to raise seven children. And she very well may have had mental health issues. Here we follow along as Livingston takes the death, decay, worry and spins it into a glimmering strand of beauty with her lyrical prose, deep insights. GHOSTBREAD takes the world-at-large and braids it into her narrative , so we follow along with her trajectory of living in the 1970s and 1980s, her early days as a writer. Here, we swirl and worry right along with her, and then, in the end, we are struck with a tremulous pounding of 'now what' and a bit of activism of how we might change the landscape of poverty-- the cycle of girls and women, in particular, drowning in the clutches of poverty.
I was reminded, in part, of THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeanette Walls meets EDUCATED , but also perhaps the work of Bobi Conn ( IN THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY ) and also, maybe E.J Koh's THE MAGICAL LANGUAGE OF OTHERS.
For all my reviews, including author interviews, please see: www.leslielindsay.com|Always with a Book.
Special thanks to the author and the University of Georgia Press for this review copy. All thoughts are my own.
I always have such a hard time reviewing books I absolutely loved. When I finished GHOSTBREAD by Sonja Livingston (U of Georgia Press, 2009), my husband asked, "How many stars?" And I said, "Five." He nodded, slightly unimpressed. And then I followed up with, "Five GLOWING stars." He was astonished. "REALLY?!" Yes, really. And I am not in the habit of handing out five-stars unless I really mean it.
GHOSTBREAD is about living in the raw corners of Western New York. It's about a single mother raising seven kids with five different fathers. Here, we are introduced to Sonja and her mother, her siblings, their neighbors, and other characters in a memoir-in-short-stories, that is, there are 122 small little snapshots, vignettes, if you will, of this challenging life. It's not exactly an 'easy' read because the events that unfold are tough, raw, uncensored. But they are not long. Each story comprises no more than a few pages, sometimes only a long paragraph. Snippets, really. And what is a life but a collection of snippets?
This is a tale of living hand to mouth, of run down vehicles, living in motels, on reservations, in small farming towns in Indiana, on dead-end streets. It's about a mother who was in-over-her-head, who couldn't make ends meet, but was somehow able to raise seven children. And she very well may have had mental health issues. Here we follow along as Livingston takes the death, decay, worry and spins it into a glimmering strand of beauty with her lyrical prose, deep insights. GHOSTBREAD takes the world-at-large and braids it into her narrative , so we follow along with her trajectory of living in the 1970s and 1980s, her early days as a writer. Here, we swirl and worry right along with her, and then, in the end, we are struck with a tremulous pounding of 'now what' and a bit of activism of how we might change the landscape of poverty-- the cycle of girls and women, in particular, drowning in the clutches of poverty.
I was reminded, in part, of THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeanette Walls meets EDUCATED , but also perhaps the work of Bobi Conn ( IN THE SHADOW OF THE VALLEY ) and also, maybe E.J Koh's THE MAGICAL LANGUAGE OF OTHERS.
For all my reviews, including author interviews, please see: www.leslielindsay.com|Always with a Book.
Special thanks to the author and the University of Georgia Press for this review copy. All thoughts are my own.
February 16, 2023
Glad I Bought This One!
I hope readers will take a chance on this book for it is so many things all at once. As I read I noticed the brevity in the chapters, how some were merely a page or two in length yet also rich in writing style and content. It occurred to me after finishing that this literary device possibly represents the stark existence of the author and her siblings and yet her inner emotional world so complex and full. If only their refrigerator, cupboards and bellies could have also been satisfying and full!
This author writes with such depth and brings the reader with her into her day to day life and my heart hurt for her multiple times. I found myself wishing her mother could at least have been consistent with showing her love and with providing her children with regular family meals, clothing that wasn't extravagant but comparable to her peers, encouraging words, guidance and affection.
And oddly reassuring to me because it helped me feel less alone, I identified with the author when she described how she was always searching for a mother -- even though she had one. My mom was and is a good mom but she worked a split shift for years and so when she was gone, I was the mother figure to my young siblings. My mom would be home after we had gone to bed and would kiss us goodnight but because her husband abused me when she was at work, and because I had to "grow up" so early in so many ways, I often felt that I was a little girl seeking a mommy to nurture me as I took care of everyone else. I loved my mom dearly and am grateful she is still alive at her age but I needed her then and she wasn't able to be there.
It would be hard for me to state concisely one thing that is what makes me recommend this book and find it wonderful. It is the beautiful prose, the depth of each person's character she writes about, the matter of fact acceptance of what their lives were like and at the same time, that inner spark, that strength that was determined to rise above.
And Sonja Livingston did!
I hope readers will take a chance on this book for it is so many things all at once. As I read I noticed the brevity in the chapters, how some were merely a page or two in length yet also rich in writing style and content. It occurred to me after finishing that this literary device possibly represents the stark existence of the author and her siblings and yet her inner emotional world so complex and full. If only their refrigerator, cupboards and bellies could have also been satisfying and full!
This author writes with such depth and brings the reader with her into her day to day life and my heart hurt for her multiple times. I found myself wishing her mother could at least have been consistent with showing her love and with providing her children with regular family meals, clothing that wasn't extravagant but comparable to her peers, encouraging words, guidance and affection.
And oddly reassuring to me because it helped me feel less alone, I identified with the author when she described how she was always searching for a mother -- even though she had one. My mom was and is a good mom but she worked a split shift for years and so when she was gone, I was the mother figure to my young siblings. My mom would be home after we had gone to bed and would kiss us goodnight but because her husband abused me when she was at work, and because I had to "grow up" so early in so many ways, I often felt that I was a little girl seeking a mommy to nurture me as I took care of everyone else. I loved my mom dearly and am grateful she is still alive at her age but I needed her then and she wasn't able to be there.
It would be hard for me to state concisely one thing that is what makes me recommend this book and find it wonderful. It is the beautiful prose, the depth of each person's character she writes about, the matter of fact acceptance of what their lives were like and at the same time, that inner spark, that strength that was determined to rise above.
And Sonja Livingston did!
June 25, 2023
Sonja Livingston grew up in poverty around Western New York during the 1970’s and 80’s. Her family lived in downtown Rochester, Albion, and the Tonawanda Reservation. While her experiences are unique, there are many who grew up in similar situations and still face the same issues. In this moving and passionate memoir, Sonja reflects on growing up in poverty in Rochester, having a single parent household with many mouths to feed and how community helped to support and hinder her growth all at once.
As someone who lives in and near the location of this story, I was really interested in Sonja’s experience growing up in the same neighborhood. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the neighborhoods that she had grown up in; however, I do believe that there is much more opportunity for people in the inner city, especially young people. Sonja tells her story very matter-of-factly and from a child’s perspective. I loved to see Sonja’s grit and determination to overcome- even if she didn’t realize that was what she was doing. Sonja’s stories range from humorous to heartbreaking, but always with the theme of marching forward. I was very intrigued by her views of her mother and the absence of her father as well as her sibling’s fathers, so much so that father became an abstract term. The community feeling in each setting that Sonja lived in was also interesting to me, how streets and Church became close knit lifelines. While Sonja’s life was harsh, she fought to overcome and was able to get out of the cycle that she seemed to be destined for.
As someone who lives in and near the location of this story, I was really interested in Sonja’s experience growing up in the same neighborhood. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the neighborhoods that she had grown up in; however, I do believe that there is much more opportunity for people in the inner city, especially young people. Sonja tells her story very matter-of-factly and from a child’s perspective. I loved to see Sonja’s grit and determination to overcome- even if she didn’t realize that was what she was doing. Sonja’s stories range from humorous to heartbreaking, but always with the theme of marching forward. I was very intrigued by her views of her mother and the absence of her father as well as her sibling’s fathers, so much so that father became an abstract term. The community feeling in each setting that Sonja lived in was also interesting to me, how streets and Church became close knit lifelines. While Sonja’s life was harsh, she fought to overcome and was able to get out of the cycle that she seemed to be destined for.
July 29, 2024
In a rare twist, the epilogue was perhaps the most poignant chapter of this memoir for me. I will not pretend to have grown up in abject poverty like the author - but I do know a thing or two about changing the growth path of the family tree, so to speak. I believe that’s why the epilogue struck me the way it did. I grew up in relatively rural SW Virginia in a blue collar, factory-working family - was the first person in my family to attend college - went to the University of Virginia - where I graduated with honors. I still love my family fiercely - and I’m proud of my ability to adapt and fit in a country family reunions as well as DC business dinners. This is similar to what Livingston conveyed to her readers in her epilogue. But … before the epilogue, this memoir was a witty and quick read. As a reader, I felt like I was having a casual conversation with Livingston as she recounted her childhood in upstate NY. The short (sometimes 1/2 page) chapters and cheeky humor gave the book a lightheartedness despite its sometimes weighty themes. Overall, it was a great read. It’s rare that an author can talk about darkness in her life - giving it due attention - while also recognizing her own faults and finding laughter among the ashes.
February 7, 2021
I'm a big fan of Sonja Livingston's books. I've read 'The Virgin of Prince Street," "Queen of the Fall," and "Ladies Night in Dreamland." Yet, I missed this first book, "Ghostbread." It's a stunning memoir, told in imagistic vignettes...scenes of a child growing up in large family, in poverty, raised by a single mom. As a writer and reader, I'm moved by Livingston's ability to tell the unvarnished truth of the difficulties in growing up in poverty--the insecurities of shelter, food, clothing, school, and safety. Each vignette could be likened to a snapshot, peering into this family always on the run, taking hand-me-downs from neighbors, evading the landlord, surviving as best they can.
If Livingstone feels bitterness or anger over this difficult childhood or blames her mother, she sets that aside and accepts her life for what it is with all its ups and downs, joys, heartaches, desires, and shame. There's a lot of love and hope in this story, which, for me, makes it a far more sympathetic read and honest insight into the ways children in poverty must suffer.
If Livingstone feels bitterness or anger over this difficult childhood or blames her mother, she sets that aside and accepts her life for what it is with all its ups and downs, joys, heartaches, desires, and shame. There's a lot of love and hope in this story, which, for me, makes it a far more sympathetic read and honest insight into the ways children in poverty must suffer.
November 28, 2021
I'm relatively new to memoir, but I can hardly imagine liking one much better than I like Livingston's Ghostbread. It's beautifully written, beginning to end. The short sections (chapters?) seem a poetic hybrid of confessional lyric and flash creative nonfiction. These provided me with intense emotional experiences of both the highs and lows of family and poverty, of growing up amid the tensions of these, of searching for identity and belonging.
Almost everything detailed here is completely outside my experience. I grew up with not only a mother but also a father and a brother in Protestant southern Appalachia, in a lower middle class family (with lots of extensions) in the same house in which my mother grew up. And yet, I felt--I feel--an intense resonance with Ghostbread, which, first, suggests that at its core the memoir tells a deeply human story and, second, attests to the richness and power of Livingston's writing.
Almost everything detailed here is completely outside my experience. I grew up with not only a mother but also a father and a brother in Protestant southern Appalachia, in a lower middle class family (with lots of extensions) in the same house in which my mother grew up. And yet, I felt--I feel--an intense resonance with Ghostbread, which, first, suggests that at its core the memoir tells a deeply human story and, second, attests to the richness and power of Livingston's writing.
December 2, 2019
I adored this memoir for its exploration of spaces I know of but don't truly know. My mother was from western NY, and so place names like Batavia and Tonawanda stand out. So do the images that come along with not having enough for the kids that keep on coming: the powdered milk socked me in the gut! Livingston mines the stereotype that a girl who looks like her can't be impoverished, can't live in a slum. Yet, there is salvation among the hardship--and not just at church--in this memoir. Young Sonja finds hope in the bonds of her strained family ties, in her neighborhoods, and most of all in herself and in the world she makes for herself out of her intelligence. There is power in this quiet story of a woman, truth in a language that doesn't draw attention to itself but is unapologetically real.
April 12, 2023
Livingston's memoir focuses on a childhood of not having enough-- food, love, care, resources. Her pointed, short chapters punctuate the point she gets across clearly which is that growing up for her sucked, but that life ticked on and while life isn't all roses and rainbows now, it is a marked improvement. Yet, conditions for children living in poverty, especially in the area of western New York-- Buffalo and Rochester near and around the Indigenous land too need a dose of love, care, and money to help support families and industry.
Livingston wanted to write her story and she did it with equal parts frustration and love to share an experience that while lonesome, is not uncommon. The brevity of chapters and crisp story worked, but it didn't transport me or endear me as other memoirs have done, but it certainly did its job.
Livingston wanted to write her story and she did it with equal parts frustration and love to share an experience that while lonesome, is not uncommon. The brevity of chapters and crisp story worked, but it didn't transport me or endear me as other memoirs have done, but it certainly did its job.
June 10, 2024
This is a memoir about a girl growing up in poverty in western New York. She is one child in a family of seven children and a single mom just trying to get by with no fathers in the picture. The title is derived from the author's idea of wishing she had bread from so many nights of eating nothing but soup. This is a beautifully written, aching memoir about a family bouncing from one address to the next, and occasionally to a tent, forced to toss their meager possessions when they move yet again. The reader really feels for the children in this story who get hand-me-downs from neighbors and one toy apiece at Christmas. She writes about being hungry on the playground and wishing another child would share his potato chips with her, but knowing from experience that he won't. I really liked this book. I am giving it four stars.
September 22, 2024
Livingston grew up in Western New York, constantly moving because her single mom had difficulty supporting a family of six.
Families are complicated, and her mother looms large. I have several friends who also have complicated mothers. Some of them mean well; some seem bent on destruction, some seem self-centered and resentful of having to parent. Livingston's mom seems to be all of these things. Livingston shares all sides with readers.
I think I especially enjoyed her story because Livingston and I are around the same age and all of the pop culture references and music of the time strike a nostalgic chord in me. I connected with her in that way even if our upbringing was very different.
Families are complicated, and her mother looms large. I have several friends who also have complicated mothers. Some of them mean well; some seem bent on destruction, some seem self-centered and resentful of having to parent. Livingston's mom seems to be all of these things. Livingston shares all sides with readers.
I think I especially enjoyed her story because Livingston and I are around the same age and all of the pop culture references and music of the time strike a nostalgic chord in me. I connected with her in that way even if our upbringing was very different.
Read
April 17, 2020A memoir, a series of vignettes that add up to a picture of an impoverished life in the slums of New York in the 1970s and 1980s. It sounds like it would be depressing, and I was almost afraid to read it, but it really isn't too bad. Even though her life sounds a bit soul crushing, she seemed content with her life--sure, she didn't have a father, but hardly anyone else had a father or any money, either. She has a nice, spare evocative style. Even events that would have been played for huge tragedy in other books (like a house fire) and related in a matter-of-fact way without a lot of hand wringing.
December 18, 2020
Beautifully written, with poetic honesty.
This story is real, hard, raw, and told in a way that is compelling. The author has a way of being creatively descriptive that is unique and delightful!
She asks for neither pity nor praise, for a difficult and painful upbringing. She found a way out of a life that is rarely escaped from, and I’m glad. I know it wasn’t easy.
I grew up in, and eventually returned to, a small town just south of Rochester. The places she writes about are familiar, yet this story reveals a world that while nearby, is foreign to me. I am grateful that this book opened my eyes. Thank you!!
This story is real, hard, raw, and told in a way that is compelling. The author has a way of being creatively descriptive that is unique and delightful!
She asks for neither pity nor praise, for a difficult and painful upbringing. She found a way out of a life that is rarely escaped from, and I’m glad. I know it wasn’t easy.
I grew up in, and eventually returned to, a small town just south of Rochester. The places she writes about are familiar, yet this story reveals a world that while nearby, is foreign to me. I am grateful that this book opened my eyes. Thank you!!
March 6, 2021
I don't give 5 star ratings very often but this memoir is a deserving recipient. The short vignettes are woven together into a memorable story of growing up in poverty in New York state. A mother who is clearly over her head, children that are raising themselves with little guidanc,e and the grinding reality of want and lack. A testimony to the resilience of the author and her ability to pull back and record these events without judgment or bitterness. She finds the diamonds in the dust of every day life. Definitely one of the top memoirs to read!
June 1, 2021
The back of Ghostbread will tell you that it is about "children brought up in poverty by a single mother," which is factually accurate but too sociological to capture the spirit of this delightful memoir. Instead, its matter-of-fact language takes us deep into the lived experience of a little girl who is sensitive, inquisitive, plain-spoken and knows how to get what she needs. The short sections move back and forth in time, and the narrator's observations are frank (and sometimes bemused) but without judgment. A poignant and enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews