A child's perspective of domestic tensions. The novel's strength is in its characterisation of a dysfunctional family, from the sibling rivalry, abusive father, to the boozy Aunt Net, and the matriarchal Nan who manages to hold the family together. This novel is definitely not as disturbing as Dave Pelzer's books, it's more about the coping mechanisms of a 'problem family'.
It was the booze that did it, Nan said. It was wasting her away. And it did seem the more she drank, the more her already frail frame appeared, in inverse correspondence, to wither and shrink. It wasn't just her height, either. Bits and pieces of her seemed to flake off, through the years.
