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Cruel Harvest
"Get out here, now, or I'm gonna kill you!" he hollered.
Little girls are hardwired to hold their daddies in high esteem, so it comes as a shock the first time a daughter feels the back of her daddy's hand across her face . . . or watches him punch and kick her mother to within an inch of her life. How could this be? Her older sisters teach her how to survive, even when he comes for her in the night.
A girl learns to become invisible, to look the other way, to say nothing when a curious stranger asks if she's okay. To lie. To expect nothing, not even from relatives.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead. Cruel Harvest is the compelling story of how she lived instead.
Little girls are hardwired to hold their daddies in high esteem, so it comes as a shock the first time a daughter feels the back of her daddy's hand across her face . . . or watches him punch and kick her mother to within an inch of her life. How could this be? Her older sisters teach her how to survive, even when he comes for her in the night.
A girl learns to become invisible, to look the other way, to say nothing when a curious stranger asks if she's okay. To lie. To expect nothing, not even from relatives.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead. Cruel Harvest is the compelling story of how she lived instead.
257 pages, Hardcover
First published April 14, 2012
28 people are currently reading
453 people want to read
About the author
Fran Elizabeth Grubb
4 books11 followersFran Grubb travels across the southeast United States with her husband, speaking at churches, tent revivals, prisons, women's shelters, children’s homes, and drug or alcohol rehabilitation centers. D. James Kennedy featured Fran in his "Reclaiming America for Christ” campaign in 2003.
Fran and and her husband are founders of a nonprofit organization called "Feed the Hungry Children." When Fran was told about starving children in Kenya and shown photographs of the women and children picking up grains of rice off the ground, she was moved to help. She and her husband, Wayne, were instrumental in building a church in Kangundo, East Kenya, and they have sent money for clothes, food, and school supplies, as well as electronic equipment and a bicycle for Titus Kakonzi, a minister in a small village in Kenya.
Fran has two children and five grandchildren. She and her husband live with their dogs, Banghor and Little Bit, in South Carolina.
Fran and and her husband are founders of a nonprofit organization called "Feed the Hungry Children." When Fran was told about starving children in Kenya and shown photographs of the women and children picking up grains of rice off the ground, she was moved to help. She and her husband, Wayne, were instrumental in building a church in Kangundo, East Kenya, and they have sent money for clothes, food, and school supplies, as well as electronic equipment and a bicycle for Titus Kakonzi, a minister in a small village in Kenya.
Fran has two children and five grandchildren. She and her husband live with their dogs, Banghor and Little Bit, in South Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
November 17, 2012
This is a book that clearly Frances Grubb had to write, but I found some of it bordered on unbelievable: not the violence and abuse, which are all too commonly real even in the most upstanding families, or the effects of alcoholism on a family, but in the way Jesus and Frances' "faith" is woven through her childhood. Young children (especially terrorized children) do not naturally "come to Jesus" just because there's a Bible lying in the floorboard of the car, and the author did not believably convey how the child Frances could have had the kind of exposure to Jesus' teachings that would solidify her faith to the degree that it would have helped her survive to the degree she claims it did.
I found the whole faith overlay to be a flaw and just too much of a stretch, and there were other stretches as well. If Frances really had not attended school and the conditions she faced growing up were so frightfully chaotic, how did her beaten-to-a-pulp mother teach her to read at all? If she had so little food and sleep, how did she manage to work all day picking cotton without collapsing or becoming so ill the authorities would have been alerted to her? Another stretch was her aunt trying to starve her, as if her solidly demonic father weren't enough to drive the plot.
The whole book suffers from black-and-white thinking. All the people in Frances' life are either good or bad. Maybe that's the way she has to see them to feel safe and be able to forgive those who have hurt her—to allow Jesus to wash their sins off of her? Maybe the great big happy family reunion at the end is the same kind of thing....
There were other elements that made me question the veracity of the story at times. For example, I found the automobile accident and the hospital staff's reaction to it believable, because I know that in the fifties and sixties people often looked the other way when abuse or heavy drinking were happening; but I did not for one minute buy her father's ability to drive like he did when he was trying to scare them to death while he was falling-down drunk. And what about those stitches all over her body that were never taken out?
I appreciate that the author did not make the abuse more lurid than it needed to be to convey its horrors, but some elements of it (the sexual abuse) were so glossed over that even an astute reader could be forgiven for not perceiving it at all until the end of the book, when she blurts out that her father had raped her and her sisters. The only explanation I can see for this is that, even now, she feels more shame over the sexual abuse than she does over the severe physical and emotional abuse she and the rest of the family endured. The question is, why?
This book would have been stronger, and more helpful to others, had Frances given us less of the "angels came out of nowhere and saved me" spiel and more of a "this is what I came to understand and how I can forgive" story. I found her skipping over her own process of maturation as an adult in favor of idolizing her knight-in-shining-armor/savior husband to be disturbing. The book as a whole reminds me of journals written by people in trauma therapy who have not yet gotten past the victim stage of the work—a stage at which they are at their most vulnerable and least strong.
I know it must have been a comfort to the author to write this book, however, and perhaps it will be some comfort to Christians who are in the early stages of healing from some trauma.
I found the whole faith overlay to be a flaw and just too much of a stretch, and there were other stretches as well. If Frances really had not attended school and the conditions she faced growing up were so frightfully chaotic, how did her beaten-to-a-pulp mother teach her to read at all? If she had so little food and sleep, how did she manage to work all day picking cotton without collapsing or becoming so ill the authorities would have been alerted to her? Another stretch was her aunt trying to starve her, as if her solidly demonic father weren't enough to drive the plot.
The whole book suffers from black-and-white thinking. All the people in Frances' life are either good or bad. Maybe that's the way she has to see them to feel safe and be able to forgive those who have hurt her—to allow Jesus to wash their sins off of her? Maybe the great big happy family reunion at the end is the same kind of thing....
There were other elements that made me question the veracity of the story at times. For example, I found the automobile accident and the hospital staff's reaction to it believable, because I know that in the fifties and sixties people often looked the other way when abuse or heavy drinking were happening; but I did not for one minute buy her father's ability to drive like he did when he was trying to scare them to death while he was falling-down drunk. And what about those stitches all over her body that were never taken out?
I appreciate that the author did not make the abuse more lurid than it needed to be to convey its horrors, but some elements of it (the sexual abuse) were so glossed over that even an astute reader could be forgiven for not perceiving it at all until the end of the book, when she blurts out that her father had raped her and her sisters. The only explanation I can see for this is that, even now, she feels more shame over the sexual abuse than she does over the severe physical and emotional abuse she and the rest of the family endured. The question is, why?
This book would have been stronger, and more helpful to others, had Frances given us less of the "angels came out of nowhere and saved me" spiel and more of a "this is what I came to understand and how I can forgive" story. I found her skipping over her own process of maturation as an adult in favor of idolizing her knight-in-shining-armor/savior husband to be disturbing. The book as a whole reminds me of journals written by people in trauma therapy who have not yet gotten past the victim stage of the work—a stage at which they are at their most vulnerable and least strong.
I know it must have been a comfort to the author to write this book, however, and perhaps it will be some comfort to Christians who are in the early stages of healing from some trauma.
November 3, 2016
Probably one of the most heart wrenching memoirs I've ever read. So glad this one had a happy ending though! The only reason I knocked a star off was because she never said what happened to Millie and Mary Ann or if she didn't know. Or if she ever got in touch with her mom when she finally got away and I was also curious about her youngest brother Robbie.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2019
If you liked the Glass Castle, this is a must-read (and even better, in my opinion)!
October 23, 2012
A girl learns to become invisible, to look the other way, to say nothing when a curious stranger asks if she's okay. To lie. To expect nothing, not even from relatives.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead.
Reading this description from the publisher's site, one tends to think that it's an exaggeration. Even though we all know that evil exists in the world, and some of that evil exists in the guise of a father or a mother. But really, our mind asks, can it really be that bad?
This memoir covers a short period in a young girl's life - ages five to fourteen; nine years filled with more violence and damage than most of us can imagine. It is not an easy story to read.
It is unthinkable to me that a five-year-old should be forced to drag a sack through a field, picking cotton until her fingers bleed. That a nine-year-old girl, in 1958, had never slept in a bed, never learned to brush her teeth, never trusted that there would be food from one day to the next.
That any child, at any age, should watch the man who is 'Father' beat mother, rape sisters, and (eventually) come after her/him. Should be forced to wolf down food, when there is food, because 'Father' will rip it away if you're too slow. Should want to die at the age of fourteen, because there is no imaginable escape from hell.
This is not an easy story to read. The only salvation, for me and my mind, was that when the ugliness reached a point where I didn't think - as a reader - I could go on, there was a glimpse into Ms. Grubb's current life. A respite from horror that this incredible child never received.
As I mentioned, this is a window looking upon only nine years. It begins and ends with Ms. Grubb's husband, his efforts to reunite the siblings, and a bit of this young girl's life today. And the amazing fact that, through the nightmare that was her childhood, Fran Grubb found faith and God, and came to be saved.
At one point, she tells us that her husband had asked how she came to be saved. Her answer? "That's a real long story."
I do hope that we'll get to hear that story.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead.
Reading this description from the publisher's site, one tends to think that it's an exaggeration. Even though we all know that evil exists in the world, and some of that evil exists in the guise of a father or a mother. But really, our mind asks, can it really be that bad?
This memoir covers a short period in a young girl's life - ages five to fourteen; nine years filled with more violence and damage than most of us can imagine. It is not an easy story to read.
It is unthinkable to me that a five-year-old should be forced to drag a sack through a field, picking cotton until her fingers bleed. That a nine-year-old girl, in 1958, had never slept in a bed, never learned to brush her teeth, never trusted that there would be food from one day to the next.
That any child, at any age, should watch the man who is 'Father' beat mother, rape sisters, and (eventually) come after her/him. Should be forced to wolf down food, when there is food, because 'Father' will rip it away if you're too slow. Should want to die at the age of fourteen, because there is no imaginable escape from hell.
This is not an easy story to read. The only salvation, for me and my mind, was that when the ugliness reached a point where I didn't think - as a reader - I could go on, there was a glimpse into Ms. Grubb's current life. A respite from horror that this incredible child never received.
As I mentioned, this is a window looking upon only nine years. It begins and ends with Ms. Grubb's husband, his efforts to reunite the siblings, and a bit of this young girl's life today. And the amazing fact that, through the nightmare that was her childhood, Fran Grubb found faith and God, and came to be saved.
At one point, she tells us that her husband had asked how she came to be saved. Her answer? "That's a real long story."
I do hope that we'll get to hear that story.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
August 18, 2012
Rarely does a book get under my skin in the way that Cruel Harvest: A Memoir has done. I will never forget it. It is a raw, haunting tale of Fran Elizabeth Grubb's life as the daughter of an abusive, alcoholic migrant worker up to her bold escape at the age of fourteen and her greatest desire to find members of her family to mend their relationships. The book mercifully flashes between her adulthood as each brother and sister is found to her memories of the life they endured before they scattered.
It is a book I found disturbing to read and yet I could barely put it down. The accounts of starvation and abuse of emotional, physical, and sexual natures were sensitively described in just enough detail to wrench my heart and yet throughout it I felt this undercurrent of hope and even joy, because in a flash to her adulthood it is clear that she had not only survived, but conquered her past. Sadder to me was that her father was not her only abuser and I wondered how a child who had so little experience with good people could even recognize goodness at all. Still, while I sensed that all she survived had shaped her early life, a victim is not who she is today. She had found God along the way and had given forgiveness to those who had done what others might see as unforgivable acts against herself and those she loved most.
Finding and connecting with her family members was Fran's dream, one that her husband worked with her to make come true, a dream that she hoped would mend her broken heart for her family. If she lived through it and could write about it demonstrating the joy she has now, then one can endure the discomfort of reading through the abuse to beyond, to receive the blessing of forgiveness I believed Fran wished to share. No matter how bad another can make your life, the true freedom, hope, power, and joy is in following Jesus' example of forgiveness.
Thank you, dear Fran, for writing this book.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
It is a book I found disturbing to read and yet I could barely put it down. The accounts of starvation and abuse of emotional, physical, and sexual natures were sensitively described in just enough detail to wrench my heart and yet throughout it I felt this undercurrent of hope and even joy, because in a flash to her adulthood it is clear that she had not only survived, but conquered her past. Sadder to me was that her father was not her only abuser and I wondered how a child who had so little experience with good people could even recognize goodness at all. Still, while I sensed that all she survived had shaped her early life, a victim is not who she is today. She had found God along the way and had given forgiveness to those who had done what others might see as unforgivable acts against herself and those she loved most.
Finding and connecting with her family members was Fran's dream, one that her husband worked with her to make come true, a dream that she hoped would mend her broken heart for her family. If she lived through it and could write about it demonstrating the joy she has now, then one can endure the discomfort of reading through the abuse to beyond, to receive the blessing of forgiveness I believed Fran wished to share. No matter how bad another can make your life, the true freedom, hope, power, and joy is in following Jesus' example of forgiveness.
Thank you, dear Fran, for writing this book.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
January 12, 2013
Cruel Harvest by Fran Elizabeth Grubb is an author's journey from victim to survivor. The author handles a tough topic with honesty without being depressing. As a survivor of abuse myself I could relate to having difficult relationships with siblings as an adult. This is the first book I read that really deals with all the emotions, heartache and other issues that come with abuse such as having relationships with other family members.
What sold me as a great example were that family saw Fran as being at peace while other family members struggled with past abuse. Fran's hart braking story is inspiring whether you have experienced abuse or not. I am grateful Grubb was able to retell her journey.
I received Cruel Harvest from a reading program with Book Sneeze. I am in noway required to give a positive review.
What sold me as a great example were that family saw Fran as being at peace while other family members struggled with past abuse. Fran's hart braking story is inspiring whether you have experienced abuse or not. I am grateful Grubb was able to retell her journey.
I received Cruel Harvest from a reading program with Book Sneeze. I am in noway required to give a positive review.
May 26, 2016
A beautiful book, review coming
October 4, 2012
From the book:
"Get out here, now, or I'm gonna kill you!" he hollered.
Little girls are hardwired to hold their daddies in high esteem, so it comes as a shock the first time a daughter feels the back of her daddy's hand across her face . . . or watches him punch and kick her mother to within an inch of her life.
How could this be? Her older sisters teach her how to survive, even when he comes for her in the night.
A girl learns to become invisible, to look the other way, to say nothing when a curious stranger asks if she's okay. To lie. To expect nothing, not even from relatives.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead. Cruel Harvest is the compelling story of how she lived instead.
My review:
It was very hard for me to read this heart-wrenching story. The trust between a little girl and her Daddy is like no other relationship. There is an inherent trust and when it is broken, it's like the world ended! For Fran Grubb, it didn't take long to learn that to love her Daddy was to experience hurt, pain and embarrassment often.
From the time she was a little girl, all Fran knew was to hide from her father when he was mad or drunk... which was often. Her mother tried to help them enjoy life and let them know there was still joy in this world but it became more and more difficult.
Fran and her sisters and brothers endured the harsh treatment of their father, not being able to go to school, having to work cotton fields, apple orchards, constantly moving, for all of their young lives, until one by one they escaped. One by one.
For a life story, Cruel Harvest reminds us how we need to look after our neighbors. So many people had contact with these children but somehow they never received the help they need. Fran Grubbs was "lucky" but there are so many children who are not. She chose to use her experience to help others and now goes around the country singing, speaking and raising money for her charity, Feed the Hungry Children.
This book is certainly not an easy read, but it is well written and flows nicely.
From a Christian perspective, it's a wonderful example of God's redeeming love and the freedom received from forgiving others. God bless Fran Grub and her husband Wayne for sharing this story and choosing to bless others thus breaking the chain of abuse. For more info about Fran Grubbs you can go to her website www.frangrubb.com
"Get out here, now, or I'm gonna kill you!" he hollered.
Little girls are hardwired to hold their daddies in high esteem, so it comes as a shock the first time a daughter feels the back of her daddy's hand across her face . . . or watches him punch and kick her mother to within an inch of her life.
How could this be? Her older sisters teach her how to survive, even when he comes for her in the night.
A girl learns to become invisible, to look the other way, to say nothing when a curious stranger asks if she's okay. To lie. To expect nothing, not even from relatives.
To cry without tears.
To pray silently.
When she is fourteen, and weary, a girl begins to wish she were dead. Cruel Harvest is the compelling story of how she lived instead.
My review:
It was very hard for me to read this heart-wrenching story. The trust between a little girl and her Daddy is like no other relationship. There is an inherent trust and when it is broken, it's like the world ended! For Fran Grubb, it didn't take long to learn that to love her Daddy was to experience hurt, pain and embarrassment often.
From the time she was a little girl, all Fran knew was to hide from her father when he was mad or drunk... which was often. Her mother tried to help them enjoy life and let them know there was still joy in this world but it became more and more difficult.
Fran and her sisters and brothers endured the harsh treatment of their father, not being able to go to school, having to work cotton fields, apple orchards, constantly moving, for all of their young lives, until one by one they escaped. One by one.
For a life story, Cruel Harvest reminds us how we need to look after our neighbors. So many people had contact with these children but somehow they never received the help they need. Fran Grubbs was "lucky" but there are so many children who are not. She chose to use her experience to help others and now goes around the country singing, speaking and raising money for her charity, Feed the Hungry Children.
This book is certainly not an easy read, but it is well written and flows nicely.
From a Christian perspective, it's a wonderful example of God's redeeming love and the freedom received from forgiving others. God bless Fran Grub and her husband Wayne for sharing this story and choosing to bless others thus breaking the chain of abuse. For more info about Fran Grubbs you can go to her website www.frangrubb.com
June 16, 2016
What a torturous, heart-wrenching account of cruelty but I am so glad I read it.
The book is well written and the audio is beautifully narrated.
The faith and perseverance of this little girl was an inspiring, humbling account.
I am a better person for having read this.
I wish I could meet the author, give her a big hug and be her friend.
The book is well written and the audio is beautifully narrated.
The faith and perseverance of this little girl was an inspiring, humbling account.
I am a better person for having read this.
I wish I could meet the author, give her a big hug and be her friend.
October 24, 2012
Unbelievable Child Abuse
This is a true story written by a survivor of her father’s viciousness and torture. The story commenced when Frances was fourteen years old and she has run away from her father Broadus, who would probably beat her to death if he caught up with her. The story was told in a series of flashbacks from the present when she was close to forty years old and the wife of Wayne, after a disastrous first marriage with an alcoholic with whom she had two children. In essence, the story began when Frances was five years old and had three older sisters, Brenda, Susie and Nellie and an older brother Jimmy and a younger brother Robbie. They were migrant workers and much of their work was in the cotton fields. Everyone worked picking cotton except the younger brother Robbie and their hands and arms were continually torn from the stickers on the cotton boles. Sometimtes they traveled by catching rides in box cars when the train slowed and Frances always had a fear of falling beneath the tracks. When cotton picking was over, then they traveled down into Texas and got whatever work there was or north to pick fruit. Much of the time they lived in shacks unfit for human habitation, no running water except for standpipe at one end of the workers’ shacks and an outhouse. Consequently they were always dirty and hungry because Broadus spent most of the money on alcohol and the children and their mother were lucky if they got one slim meal a day, maybe only an apple if they were picking apples. Frances’ mother was Native American and often Broadus for no reason beat her so bad that later he had to take her to the hospital because of broken ribs and a split lip. The entire family lived daily in fear of a beating or even being killed, which he constantly threatened. Through the years, Broadus sold Jimmy to a brother for $5.00 to get rid of him.
He had been raping Brenda, who was fourteen, and the mother knew about it but could not stop him. Brenda threatened to kill him and at one place they stayed, Brenda worked for the local employer and told of his raping her. He was arrested and they had peace, but no income. Finally their mother took them to her sister Teresa, who protected the mother but hated the children. She made them sit on a chair all day long every day and fed them perhaps one meal a day. During that time the mother disappeared and then she and Teresa took them to an orphanage, which was like heaven. But Robbie was separated from the children and so was Susie. They were at the orphanage a few months, during which time they learned how to keep clean, do household chores, always had enough to eat, and were loved. Then one day Broadus showed up having escaped from prison, and he sweet talked the administrator of the orphanage to give him his daughters, Frances and Nellie. At no time was Child Protective Services mentioned and had the children been under its control, Broadus could not have gotten them back. Life only got worse for Frances and Nellie. Their mother was not there to protect them and Broadus took a stronger, larger woman and her three year old daughter in, but soon they were under the same torturous living conditions as the girls.
This story is full of such continuous horrific abuse of the children and women to a degree beyond comprehension in this day and age. Eventually life took a turn for the better and Frances with Wayne take her experiences to help others and turns to God for her strength. Although she doesn’t hint that this may be so, she must still carry mental and emotional scars that haunt her, even though she consciously forgave her father. This is not a book to be read as entertainment, but I feel it is worthy for the insight it gives into families, which still exist under such conditions and fall below the purview of Child Protective Services. On this basis, I recommend it.
This is a true story written by a survivor of her father’s viciousness and torture. The story commenced when Frances was fourteen years old and she has run away from her father Broadus, who would probably beat her to death if he caught up with her. The story was told in a series of flashbacks from the present when she was close to forty years old and the wife of Wayne, after a disastrous first marriage with an alcoholic with whom she had two children. In essence, the story began when Frances was five years old and had three older sisters, Brenda, Susie and Nellie and an older brother Jimmy and a younger brother Robbie. They were migrant workers and much of their work was in the cotton fields. Everyone worked picking cotton except the younger brother Robbie and their hands and arms were continually torn from the stickers on the cotton boles. Sometimtes they traveled by catching rides in box cars when the train slowed and Frances always had a fear of falling beneath the tracks. When cotton picking was over, then they traveled down into Texas and got whatever work there was or north to pick fruit. Much of the time they lived in shacks unfit for human habitation, no running water except for standpipe at one end of the workers’ shacks and an outhouse. Consequently they were always dirty and hungry because Broadus spent most of the money on alcohol and the children and their mother were lucky if they got one slim meal a day, maybe only an apple if they were picking apples. Frances’ mother was Native American and often Broadus for no reason beat her so bad that later he had to take her to the hospital because of broken ribs and a split lip. The entire family lived daily in fear of a beating or even being killed, which he constantly threatened. Through the years, Broadus sold Jimmy to a brother for $5.00 to get rid of him.
He had been raping Brenda, who was fourteen, and the mother knew about it but could not stop him. Brenda threatened to kill him and at one place they stayed, Brenda worked for the local employer and told of his raping her. He was arrested and they had peace, but no income. Finally their mother took them to her sister Teresa, who protected the mother but hated the children. She made them sit on a chair all day long every day and fed them perhaps one meal a day. During that time the mother disappeared and then she and Teresa took them to an orphanage, which was like heaven. But Robbie was separated from the children and so was Susie. They were at the orphanage a few months, during which time they learned how to keep clean, do household chores, always had enough to eat, and were loved. Then one day Broadus showed up having escaped from prison, and he sweet talked the administrator of the orphanage to give him his daughters, Frances and Nellie. At no time was Child Protective Services mentioned and had the children been under its control, Broadus could not have gotten them back. Life only got worse for Frances and Nellie. Their mother was not there to protect them and Broadus took a stronger, larger woman and her three year old daughter in, but soon they were under the same torturous living conditions as the girls.
This story is full of such continuous horrific abuse of the children and women to a degree beyond comprehension in this day and age. Eventually life took a turn for the better and Frances with Wayne take her experiences to help others and turns to God for her strength. Although she doesn’t hint that this may be so, she must still carry mental and emotional scars that haunt her, even though she consciously forgave her father. This is not a book to be read as entertainment, but I feel it is worthy for the insight it gives into families, which still exist under such conditions and fall below the purview of Child Protective Services. On this basis, I recommend it.
February 1, 2013
Cruel Harvest is a memoir written by Fran Elizabeth Grubb and in she describes the most violent and soul wrenching experiences that no child should have to endure. To say she rose from despair and poverty is an understatement.
Grubb recounts the life that her mother, siblings, and herself endured at the hands of an abusive and alcoholic husband and father. His uncontrolled anger would send him into fits of rage that would end up with one member of the family or another being beaten, harassed, belittled, and or sexually abused, and that would continue until someone would have the strength to leave. And the abuse scenes were harrowing and very much in detail. I'm surprised she remembered in detail the beatings she and the other children around her endured. This was very much a hard read, but it does show that a will to survive and a resounding faith can turn a person in another direction than one that has already been carved. She could have ended up like her father being an abuser herself but she chose not to.
For much of her life Frances travels with her migrant farming family working in different fields, traveling from state to state with the growing and harvesting seasons. Because of this, there is no school for any of them, and no other children that they can make friendships. They are essentially alone and become the support for each other. Despite what all Grubb had been through, she ends up strong, healthy, and married to a man who insists on putting a headstone on her abusive father's unmarked grave many years later. To say that in itself is a testament of will and faith is an understatement.
This was published on my book blog.
Grubb recounts the life that her mother, siblings, and herself endured at the hands of an abusive and alcoholic husband and father. His uncontrolled anger would send him into fits of rage that would end up with one member of the family or another being beaten, harassed, belittled, and or sexually abused, and that would continue until someone would have the strength to leave. And the abuse scenes were harrowing and very much in detail. I'm surprised she remembered in detail the beatings she and the other children around her endured. This was very much a hard read, but it does show that a will to survive and a resounding faith can turn a person in another direction than one that has already been carved. She could have ended up like her father being an abuser herself but she chose not to.
For much of her life Frances travels with her migrant farming family working in different fields, traveling from state to state with the growing and harvesting seasons. Because of this, there is no school for any of them, and no other children that they can make friendships. They are essentially alone and become the support for each other. Despite what all Grubb had been through, she ends up strong, healthy, and married to a man who insists on putting a headstone on her abusive father's unmarked grave many years later. To say that in itself is a testament of will and faith is an understatement.
This was published on my book blog.
November 10, 2013
A MUST-READ!
Some stories hit you like lightning, while others slowly seep into your mind and soul with a permanence that’s hard to shake. Cruel Harvest was such a story for me.
Based on some reviews I thought this would be a very graphic story, and while some passages are explicit, Fran Grubb has opted not to sensationalize these very traumatic events in her life. She tells her story straight from the heart from page one and slowly grips you with an ensemble of endearing siblings you’ll never forget.
The difficult part is not reading this story, but not being there to stop this very troubled man she calls “Daddy,” from perpetrating senseless brutality on women and on his helpless young daughters.
Cruel Harvest is a truly gut-wrenching story that will stay with you long after you’ve read the last pages but for good reasons, as its ending is positive and uplifting in the most memorable way.
I truly loved this book and highly recommend you read it not for its harrowing details, but for its beautiful and redemptive ending that makes up for its many scenes of misfortune with an amazing example of spirituality, all in the name of forgiveness.
Some stories hit you like lightning, while others slowly seep into your mind and soul with a permanence that’s hard to shake. Cruel Harvest was such a story for me.
Based on some reviews I thought this would be a very graphic story, and while some passages are explicit, Fran Grubb has opted not to sensationalize these very traumatic events in her life. She tells her story straight from the heart from page one and slowly grips you with an ensemble of endearing siblings you’ll never forget.
The difficult part is not reading this story, but not being there to stop this very troubled man she calls “Daddy,” from perpetrating senseless brutality on women and on his helpless young daughters.
Cruel Harvest is a truly gut-wrenching story that will stay with you long after you’ve read the last pages but for good reasons, as its ending is positive and uplifting in the most memorable way.
I truly loved this book and highly recommend you read it not for its harrowing details, but for its beautiful and redemptive ending that makes up for its many scenes of misfortune with an amazing example of spirituality, all in the name of forgiveness.
Read
August 24, 2012Cruel Harvest was a very tough read simply because it is so graphic in describing the abuse the family endured. I wasn't expecting that and had to stop just to collect myself and continue reading a lot.
September 27, 2012
Great book, heart wrenching story. Highly recommended.
December 13, 2012
Positive spin to a real life dysfunctional childhood, very brave writer!
June 1, 2013
This is an unbelievable story...one that ends with true forgiveness.
October 25, 2021
If I said this is the darkest book I've ever read, it would be an honest assessment if I had stopped at any point before the last ten pages. "Cruel" is too mild a term to describe the horrific things that were done to Frances, her sisters, their mother, and numerous others in this memoir/narrative of growing up in the migrant farm world of the 60's under the vicious alcohol fueled tyranny of "daddy."
Daily beatings, nightly molestation, continuous verbal threats of death or dismemberment; these were the realities Francis lived with for more than a decade. As a reader, I wanted to jump into the pages and annihilate this man, or at least see someone else in the story come to the rescue of these girls and do so for them (and me.) The power and love of God, though present throughout the years this story covers, seem almost invisible until the final events are disclosed. Which is why anyone who embarks on the reading of this book must decide at the outset to read through to the last page.
The truth is manifested that being able to forgive may be more possible than forgetting...
"I felt sad for 'daddy.' Not for what he did; there is no excuse or understanding for that. I felt sad for what he did not do - love, enjoy life, embrace God...."
Fran Grubb has been described by a previous reviewer as a "brave writer;" I second that nomination and encourage you to read - you will not come away un-moved.
Daily beatings, nightly molestation, continuous verbal threats of death or dismemberment; these were the realities Francis lived with for more than a decade. As a reader, I wanted to jump into the pages and annihilate this man, or at least see someone else in the story come to the rescue of these girls and do so for them (and me.) The power and love of God, though present throughout the years this story covers, seem almost invisible until the final events are disclosed. Which is why anyone who embarks on the reading of this book must decide at the outset to read through to the last page.
The truth is manifested that being able to forgive may be more possible than forgetting...
"I felt sad for 'daddy.' Not for what he did; there is no excuse or understanding for that. I felt sad for what he did not do - love, enjoy life, embrace God...."
Fran Grubb has been described by a previous reviewer as a "brave writer;" I second that nomination and encourage you to read - you will not come away un-moved.
March 21, 2018
Disturbing. Riveting. Compelling. Inspiriational. Memoir is usually a word that turns me off to reading a book. This book is different. It is a story of how Fran Grubb overcame abuse beyond what I've every imagined. Descriptions in the book are not graphic, however the abuse is not simply glossed over. The tragedy that the abuse suffered came not from a single source but from even unexpected sources. This is a story of how the grace and mercy of God transformed a broken person. Some might wonder why God didn't prevent the abuse, but it is obvious that throughout her life God was there and helping. This is not an easy read, but it is well worth the time. I recommend this book for broken people who wonder if there is ever a way out or through the challenges faced.
March 19, 2024
5/5⭐️
Utterly heartbreaking… The most horrifying part is that this is a memoir and not a work of fiction. Having spent many years working with children who have suffered this kind of abuse at the hands of those who were supposed to love them most, this was a truly devastating read. Impossible not to shed a tear at the end 🥺.
This is a well written, beautifully woven memoir alternating between Fran’s childhood and her life 40+ years later where she reunites with her siblings. No one should ever know pain like this woman endured and yet, she praises God through it all. What an incredible woman!
Utterly heartbreaking… The most horrifying part is that this is a memoir and not a work of fiction. Having spent many years working with children who have suffered this kind of abuse at the hands of those who were supposed to love them most, this was a truly devastating read. Impossible not to shed a tear at the end 🥺.
This is a well written, beautifully woven memoir alternating between Fran’s childhood and her life 40+ years later where she reunites with her siblings. No one should ever know pain like this woman endured and yet, she praises God through it all. What an incredible woman!
October 19, 2024
I absolutely loved this book. Certainly made me cry. I read it in short few years after she had passed away. I am so thankful that I got to meet her sisters and wow what a testimony they had.
My Nana was such a inspiration this book holds so much truth to what she went through as a young girl to turn into such an incredible, inspirational woman.
When I got done with the book all I wanted to do was to hug her. Although I heard her story from her sisters years prior to the book.
It doesn’t quite hit like reading it for yourself. Such an incredible book
My Nana was such a inspiration this book holds so much truth to what she went through as a young girl to turn into such an incredible, inspirational woman.
When I got done with the book all I wanted to do was to hug her. Although I heard her story from her sisters years prior to the book.
It doesn’t quite hit like reading it for yourself. Such an incredible book
August 12, 2025
3- Because I didn't enjoy reading this book at all. I'm amazed that Grubb is still standing and still hopeful when her memoir reads like a litany of terrors. Grubb endured every hardship, abuse, and deprivation possible to endure as a kid growing up in the US in the 1960s. It's all super horrifying! The best year of her childhood was the one she spent dumped in an orphanage with one of her sisters. The book includes some of her poetry, and is written in very simple prose.
May 5, 2017
I read this book as a favor to a good friend who said, "You have to read it; this is just what I grew up with". The further I read, the more horrified I became at what the author and my friend had to endure. And the more it made me wonder who I might know right now who is going through the same sort of unspeakable tortures. This book is an abrupt, breathtaking eye-opener.
June 10, 2017
I spotted this book at the library a while ago and eyed it for months before finally taking the plunge. I suspected that it would be really sad (it is), make me feel depressed (it did), but still be worth the read (it was). This is a book that the author clearly needed to write as part of her healing process, and I'm thankful that she's been so open and vulnerable.
August 16, 2017
So disturbing...can't stop thinking about this book and these (real life) people. I cried with Frances several times. I think more touching also to listen to the author's voice tell her own story with the audio version. Be warned, if you have a heart you will not get away from this story unscathed...
April 25, 2018
WOW! Disturbing to even think that there are people that actually live like this and neglect the children around them so terribly.
This story is controversial; it might realign some strong beliefs for a few readers. It's definitely a story that will linger in my mind for a good while.
This story is controversial; it might realign some strong beliefs for a few readers. It's definitely a story that will linger in my mind for a good while.
May 21, 2018
This was a hard book to read. My heart broke so many times while I was reading it. I cannot imagine the courage these kids had to have to survive. Thank God for His holding Fran and her family in His hand. A special prayer for Kathrine.
October 5, 2018
This book will tug at your heart! Be sure your heart is prepared for the gut wrenching emotion before reading. This woman's childhood was a hard one. But I am so thankful she survived to tell her story.
January 28, 2019
Oh, but for the grace of God! I’m grateful that He knows our names and rescues us from the pit of despair. For the children, the many Fran’s, including myself, who endured the wrath of their father, this book was written to bring you freedom. Bravo, Fran. This one will remain in my heart.
June 4, 2019
On the one hand, I hated to say that I really liked it. I hated all that the author endured at the hands of a tyrannical father. On the other hand, the author's life demonstrates the manner God is able to bring people thru horrendous events and bring them to Himself.
July 2, 2020
Easily one of my favorites! I found this book accidentally, under the bookshelf of the bookshop and figured it was fate so I bought it— and am sure glad I did! I love the narrative style and the scene details. Makes me feel I'm one of the siblings going through the same journey.
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