Last Trip Home: A Story of an Arkansas Farm Girl

(Paperback)

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Description

Nearly 700,000 children are abused in the US annually. An estimated 683,000 children (unique incidents) were victims of abuse and neglect in 2015, the most recent year for which there is national data.

1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse; self-report studies show that 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males recall a childhood sexual assault or sexual abuse incident, and according to a 2003 National Institute of Justice report, 3 out of 4 adolescents who have been sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew well.

As of 2015, an estimated 43.1 million Americans were living in poverty. (US Census Bureau)

Reviews

"An emotionally astute account of the oppressive confines of an unhappy family life." Kirkus Reviews With a writers voice that is sassy and vibrant, Wanda Maureen Millers gripping narrative took me by the heart and the scruff of my neck into regions I would never otherwise have explored. Nancy Bacal, creator and leader of The Writers Way workshops, editor of Leonard Cohens anthology, Stranger Music, and writer/producer of RAGA, starring Ravi Shankar and George Harrison An outrageous story of love and redemption set in the not-so-gracious South, from an exciting and completely original new voice. Last Trip Home is for people who like their sanity skewed. Terri Cheney, author of the New York Times bestseller Manic and blogger for Psychology Today A candid, piercing, and often funny reveal of how kith and kin in an Arkansas sharecropper shack can both maim and love. Miller is a literary sharpshooter whose memoir of her impoverished family eking by on squirrel provides riveting redneck rubbernecking. Gali Kronenberg, former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune In postWorld War II Arkansas, Grace Marie escapes her insular past with its strict behavior codes for females. Scrubbing away drawl and shame, she is now an emancipated woman in California. Yet she feels compelled to return home repeatedly when her family desperately needs help. The tone is often dark, yet there is redemption in her rise above poverty, shameful secrets, and a violent, out-of-bounds father. The story takes the clichd you cant go home again theme and turns it into a more complicated look at community bonds, family love, and sense of duty. Sharon Steeber, professor of English at Santa Monica College, author of The Jews, and coauthor of the Reading Faster and Understanding More series As a black American, I approached Last Trip Home with trepidation but couldnt stop reading. I remember my parents stories about violence from the Texas Ku Klux Klan. The characters are gut wrenchingly real, presented with both brutal honesty and humor. I got an insight into a way of thinking and living diametrically opposed to all that Ive known and respected; yet I felt pity and empathy. I cheered when Grace Marie burned her husbands KKK sheet. This book shows how the world of reading can open up a young mind. I profoundly appreciate the insight and hope represented. Judy Francis, former diplomat for the US Department of State

Author Bio

Like her main character, Grace Marie, Wanda Maureen Miller grew up on an Arkansas farm, read and wrote for escape, got an education, and moved to California. She taught college English and published four other books. She is retired now and lives in Manhattan Beach, CA, with a retired doctor. She has a daughter and granddaughter living in North Carolina and still owns the farm she grew up on.