Someplace Like Home

Jenny Caudill grew up in Kentucky, near the foothills of the magnificent Appalachian Mountains. Her father was a mechanic who fixed cars in a building beside their home while her mother cooked, cleaned and raised four children struggling to stretch every dollar. Her mother was as tough and strict as she had to be to keep the children in line and away from the dangers so easily found in a small town on the outskirts of society. Without a lot of options the teenagers tend to do a lot of smoking, drinking and fighting. Jenny’s mother demanded her children to be respectful, independent and home before dark. But without opportunities for advanced schooling after high school, jobs were scarce and they all wound up at the local factory, bored and mistreated while they stitched zippers into jeans. They didn’t know from much more than that but Jenny was itchy for independence and love. Jenny fell for the first guy who paid her any attention. Rob Lewis was an older boy who dropped out of school and was a handful of trouble. Everyone warned her but once he was set on courting Jenny she transitioned from her mother’s rules to a prison of Rob’s making. He drank, excessively took pain pills and fought with everybody. With no education and a dead end job Rob found his power by lording over Jenny and their children. Living deep in the holler Jenny was suffocating from Rob’s violent mood swings and constant abuse and needed to find a way out before someone got killed. Loosely based on her mother’s life, this author pulled on all my heartstrings. The writing flowed beautifully in this quiet story about family, motherhood and learning to protect yourself. There is much to discuss and this would be a great book club pick!  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️