This is a great memoir about one woman’s look at her life. It is beautifully written and yet very poignant and sad in places. I couldn’t put the book down after I started reading it. I love reading memoirs, but this book has a special place for me since it is in many ways a coming of age story.
The story is about Rita, and it traces her life story from the time she was eleven years old. She felt very unhappy in her house of origin. Her father was violent, and her mother was hostile. This is very difficult for a young adolescent girl to endure; she felt her only way to perhaps more happiness would be to leave home and try making her life on the streets.
Being so young and vulnerable, she became prey to older men who took advantage of her. She also got into the whole world of drugs. This was a scary world — sometimes she must have felt even more scared than at home. Strangers were most helpful to Rita, and she did manage to make her way in a dangerous and bewildering world.
Then one day, Rita saw a field of horses galloping around a field. The sight of them gave her amazing hope and a tremendous peace came upon her. This was what kept her hoping for a better day when all things were going wrong all around her. Despite her traumas she developed the ability to endure her traumas to some degree.
This story has a happy ending. Rita survived her terrible childhood and difficult adolescence and became an award-winning writer and the wife of a surgeon. But all was not Happily Ever After for a while. She underwent more hardship and she became psychologically imprisoned by her past. Who would have thought that her love of horses would save her?
Thank you for such a wonderful and honest memoir Rita. You are truly a gifted writer!