Review: A book by the streets
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 3, 2011
Diane Hanks writes the memoir of her childhood growing up with two alcoholic parents according to the streets they lived on at the time of the events.  It was an interesting way to organize it, and was also a good reminder of "geographic cure" (where an alcoholic moves around because the next place things will be better, they will be able to quit drinking, etc.).  The title comes from the time Diane and her siblings were sent to "summer camp", a euphemism for foster care.  It is a brutal, honest look at life growing up in as the child of alcoholics in a dysfuntional family.  Diane's mother clearly used alcohol to "self-medicate" for her mental illness, and the struggles that Diane and her siblings went through in their childhood are intense and painful.  While Diane tried to save her siblings from the same fate, and was not completely successful, the book clearly shows Diane is a survivor, and came through with grace and wisdom and courage.I received a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it.