Fiction That Reads Like Memoir- Review of Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
Today I’m featuring Betty: A Novel by Tiffany McDaniel. The author reached out to me directly to see if I’d be willing to review, and since I heard nothing but good things about her debut, The Summer That Melted Everything, I agreed. I feel honored to have been sent a copy of this - it's really a special book.
Genre: Literary, Rural Fiction, Coming of Age
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
Page Count: 480
Affiliate Links: Amazon | Bookshop
Publisher: Knopf (gifted)
Why I Picked It Up: The author reached out to me to request a review.
Plot Summary: "A girl comes of age against the knife." So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a white mother and a Cherokee father, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit in the rural town of Breathed, Ohio, is one of poverty and violence--both from outside the family and, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape, rich with birdsong, wild fruit, and blazing stars, becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters. Despite the hardships she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father's brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all to which she bears witness, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write. She recounts the horrors of her family's past and present with pen and paper and buries them deep in the dirt--moments that have stung her so deeply she could not tell them, until now.
Opening Sentence: “I’m still a child, only as tall as my father’s shotgun.”
Major Themes: Generational trauma, Resilience
My thoughts:
Phew. This is one of those books where you need to take a step back and regroup after reading.
It’s incredible. It's a deeply personal, complicated love letter to the authors own mother and reflection on her culture. It's also an own voices indigenous story, a perspective we don't get to hear enough of.
The story examines Betty’s relationship with her Cherokee father and white mother. She grew up in the Appalachian mountains in Ohio amid poverty, violence, and racism during the 50s and 60s. BETTY is a reflection on her life during that time. There’s no way around it- this book was brutal. At the same time, parts were so gorgeously written I had to stop and drink it in. I loved Betty’s relationship with her father and her culture- he shares his view of the world through his stories, which encourages Betty to chronicle her own. The family members go through extreme struggles-poverty, violence, abuse, rape, you name it, yet the characters are so well crafted you can’t help but root for them. This is not for the faint of heart- there are many trigger warnings, including animal abuse that I didn’t see coming. Still, if you liked Educated or The Glass Castle, I would recommend this. It’s fiction, but feels very real. This is a book that will stick with me a long time.
Quotable: “More and more, though, this fantasy was fading and I was starting to see the flesh and bone of my father.”
You Might Also Like: The Summer That Melted Everything | Educated | Hillbilly Elegy
