A True Story of a Drunken Mother
First printed in 1974, when the author had been sober some 15 years, A True Story of a Drunken Mother does not bear the test of time well. Hall isn't particularly sympathetic and her rage at men, whom she blames for many of her problems, is dated. At age 20, with one failed marriage behind her, Hall embarks on a second marriage, this time to a serviceman during World War II. During the engagement, Hall becomes pregnant by another man - a fact she keeps to herself until after the wedding. From this rocky start, Hall and her husband go on to have several more children as they live the nomadic, quasi-impoverished life of military personnel. All the while, Hall's drinking is escalating, as is her dissatisfaction with her husband. Hall isn't a natural writer and the book is strewn with uninteresting details, clich6d metaphors, and lackluster dialogue. The author catalogues blackouts, incidents of child neglect, and a compulsion to drink so overpowering she brews her own beer as insurance against lean times - all in a jarringly flat, non-introspective style. Nothing in Hall's story, however, is as grating as the publisher's insistence that, "Born female with a fighting spirit decades before the feminist movement, Hall reached for the bottle in a futile effort to escape her captivity." --FromIndependent Publisher