Yet nothing my father could accomplish as a shrimper would ever have value to my mother. In my mother’s eyes, my father was vulnerable, helpless, and shrill. He tried hard to remake himself in the image of the man he thought she wanted him to be. He hungered for my mother’s unqualified respect. His efforts were self-defeating and pathetic, but he could not help himself. Their marriage was dissonant and harsh. His success as a shrimper financed his disastrous business schemes. The bankers laughed behind his back. He became a joke in town. His children heard the jokes at school; his wife heard
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