Product Description

The house on Mary Street, Carson City, Nevada is the only place five-year-old Jennifer Lauck will ever call home. It's where the sky is deep blue, forever blue, and there are almost never any clouds up there. It's where Jennifer lives with her older brother B.J., her father and mother, and their two cats Moshe and Diane. It should be a perfect, peaceful childhood - but Jennifer's mother is ill, very ill, and a childhood is the last thing Jennifer is going to be allowed.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #400432 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jennifer Lauck conveys the perceptions, thoughts and emotions of a frightened child with utter conviction and vivid immediacy in her remarkable memoir of the six years during which both of her parents died. Lauck opens in 1969, when she is five and her 31-year-old mother is entering the final phase of a decade of severe health problems. Momma is beautiful and loving; we feel the tender intimacy between mother and daughter, even as we see that Jennifer has assumed a lot of adult responsibilities that make her fearful and obsessed with rules. Eight-year-old brother Bryan responds to Momma's illnesses with anger, and is often cruel to his sister. High-powered, workaholic Daddy does his best, but is not around a lot. (The adult author subtly depicts the children's half-conscious understanding that Daddy is seeing other women.) As Momma's health worsens and the family moves to Southern California to be near a better hospital, Lauck captures in painful detail the atmosphere of physical decay that surrounds a mortally ill woman until Momma dies on Bryan's 10th birthday. In short, Daddy moves them all in with Deb, who obviously has been his girlfriend for a while, and events spiral down from there.

Daddy dies of a heart attack before Jennifer turns 10; Deb keeps the stepchildren (whom she dislikes) so that she can get their social security allotment; Jennifer is sent out to work at a residence that is run by Deb's creepy Freedom Community Church. She is 11 by the time that her aunt and uncle rescue her--a moment that is nearly as exultant for readers as it is for the girl whose trials they have shared for nearly 400 pages. Her harrowing story might sound unremittingly grim in the retelling, but Lauck's lack of self-pity and the delicacy of her prose transform it into an odyssey of endurance and transcendence. --Wendy Smith

Review
Five-year-old Jennifer Lauck lived with her parents, elder brother and two cats in 1970s Nevada. It should have been a perfect, peaceful childhood but her mother is very ill and Jennifer has to struggle with things she should never have to cope with. This is a deeply moving and profoundly inspiring memoir of a child with an unbreakable spirit and sense of survival.

From the Publisher
Praise for BLACKBIRD
'This awful story of a pitiless childhood is beautifully rendered and consummately moving, because Lauck takes us into the mind of a child in all its terrible clarity, helplessness, fury and incomprehension' Tim Lott, SUNDAY TIMES

'Lauck captures the spirited, scratchy resilience of a child managing to shine through trauma. Heartbreakingly moving, yet totally unsentimental' ELLE

'Lauck has constructed a riveting narrative from the awful mess of her life. That she has managed to do so fills me with an admiration for which I cannot find words. The best I can do is to suggest that you read this book and be humbled, as I was, by the story of this lovely child, and her ultimate triumph over events and experiences that seem impossible to overcome' THE TIMES

'As powerful as ANGELA'S ASHES, BLACKBIRD never asks for our sympathy, simply our wonder that any child should be asked to endure so much' EVE

'This is not a grisly Californian self help memoir-as-therapy. Lauck knows how to write and structure ... Riveting' GUARDIAN

'I know it's only January, but I doubt you will read a better book this year ... it is not the astonishing story that makes this book extraordinary. It is the way the author tugs five-year old Jenny's skin down over your head like a balaclava, and makes you look through her bruised eyes. SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

'What is remarkable about Lauck's writing, and indeed her character, is her sense of humour. What could be a mawkish weepie turns into a wryly funny account, as Lauck brilliantly captures the ability of a child to perceive hope in every disaster' SUNDAY EXPRESS

'It is a small miracle that Lauck actually survived to tell her sad story ... She has written a memoir that may reassure other victims of childhood neglect and abuse that the human spirit does rise above adversity and is, ultimately, indestructible' DAILY MAIL

Customer Reviews

Blackbird, Jennifer Lauck
This book is very hard to put down. When I was not reading it I was thinking about it. It has to be the best book I have read in a very long time.

I found myself being transported into Jenny's world and seeing it through her eyes and feeling everything that she felt.

It is unbelievable that Jenny went through so much in the first 11 years of her life. Much more than the average person would go through in their lifetime.

I cannot wait to get my hands on Still Waters and read the next installment of this amazing womans life.

A sad and touching view of a lost childhood
This book is a biography written through the eyes of a young girl looking at the the events and experiences of her life (mostly heartbreaking) from the age of 5. It is a devestating, disturbing but complelling look at her mistreatment by the adults around her. I found I was unable to put it down and read it and the sequel (Still Waters) in 3 days. I thoroughly recommend it.

not your ususal abuse literature
Not your usual abuse-literature. This is about a childhood destroyed by 'normal' events like illness and family separation in the late 60s, early 70s. Not a tear-jerker but a an interesting perspective of what it's like to be a child and thus completely dependent on what adults around you decide to do with your life. This is underlined by the format of storytelling: the entire book is written from Jenny's perspective, we know about other characters only what she knows. This can be at times difficult because you really want to know what is happening and what motivates other characters to behave the way they do. But it helps you to empathize with Jenny even more as you have no adult rational ways of explaining events and actions. Having said that, it is often possible to guess what is happening and why people act they way they do. great read.