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Fatherless: A Memoir of Absence and Acceptance
Outside the window I could just make out the train tracks lit by the full moon. But I couldn’t keep my eyes open. That delicious sleepiness that only a child feels after a long day of playing outside or visiting distant relatives or encountering unusual places—that total fatigue abated my normal fear of the nightmare. As I drifted off, I heard the whistle blow; and I wondered about the people on that train. Where are they going? Why did they leave? Who are they leaving behind?
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 30, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 27, 2022
This is the second book in my self published memoir series. I daresay I give myself five stars🙂. Here’s a review posted on Amazon that I appreciate.
A Beautifully Written Memoir
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2019
First, I have to say, I LOVE this author’s writing style! Memoirs are no easy task and this author handled her life story like a gentle gripping novel. From beginning to end, I could not put it down.
The author pulls you in instantly with her vivid childhood memories and engrossing detail. You feel as though you are right there beside her, feeling your way through a tumultuous, but gently woven novel from the time her father left her in the early 1950’s through her current 70 years of age. Sandra Frye takes you to a special place in her heart and guides you along through all of her deepest thoughts and emotions from playing with dolls, a constant nightmare, love, loss, compassion, anger, frustration, confusion and finally acceptance. The gently woven thread that ran throughout the pages was the depth of her feelings of longing intertwined with her resilient hope that somewhere out there was a father who loved and cared for her and a mother and family that would somehow be at all times present and attentive in her life. Her short descriptions of empathy and her genuine longing to make her family and friends joyful by offering up heartfelt gifts makes you root for her all along the way.
Her final conclusion leaves you feeling triumphant for her and eager to learn the other aspects of her life; her time in the Peace Corps in Africa, her poetry and prose she mentions throughout her life, and her world-view after experiencing the civil rights movement and her time living on an island in Africa.
I loved that each chapter had a relevant name and most were snippets of her life in 3 to 5 pages, which made the book move quickly through the storyline.
This author has found a way to bring her readers through the most heartbreaking of times in her life as though you are in the midst of a childlike fairytale.
A must-read for anyone struggling with any issue in their life or a collector of beautifully written memoirs!
I loved it!
A Beautifully Written Memoir
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2019
First, I have to say, I LOVE this author’s writing style! Memoirs are no easy task and this author handled her life story like a gentle gripping novel. From beginning to end, I could not put it down.
The author pulls you in instantly with her vivid childhood memories and engrossing detail. You feel as though you are right there beside her, feeling your way through a tumultuous, but gently woven novel from the time her father left her in the early 1950’s through her current 70 years of age. Sandra Frye takes you to a special place in her heart and guides you along through all of her deepest thoughts and emotions from playing with dolls, a constant nightmare, love, loss, compassion, anger, frustration, confusion and finally acceptance. The gently woven thread that ran throughout the pages was the depth of her feelings of longing intertwined with her resilient hope that somewhere out there was a father who loved and cared for her and a mother and family that would somehow be at all times present and attentive in her life. Her short descriptions of empathy and her genuine longing to make her family and friends joyful by offering up heartfelt gifts makes you root for her all along the way.
Her final conclusion leaves you feeling triumphant for her and eager to learn the other aspects of her life; her time in the Peace Corps in Africa, her poetry and prose she mentions throughout her life, and her world-view after experiencing the civil rights movement and her time living on an island in Africa.
I loved that each chapter had a relevant name and most were snippets of her life in 3 to 5 pages, which made the book move quickly through the storyline.
This author has found a way to bring her readers through the most heartbreaking of times in her life as though you are in the midst of a childlike fairytale.
A must-read for anyone struggling with any issue in their life or a collector of beautifully written memoirs!
I loved it!
September 30, 2019
A touching and heartfelt story of Ms. Frye’s youth. This is a valuable read for anyone who identifies with her experiences, but also for anyone who is a mother, father or child. I highly and wholeheartedly recommend this book!
June 3, 2019
Sandra Frye has cleverly interwoven her raw feelings of loss and abandonment with a lyrical description of a 1950s childhood: children who disappear for hours without parental supervision, who play endless make-believe and who listen to stories on the radio. Vivid descriptions of fashion, food and home life provide a backdrop to the angst which pervades the memoir.
Frye’s nail-biting lack of confidence, her struggle to understand her parents’ divorce and her endless nightmares, are interspersed with closely observed cameos of the natural world. By sneaking off to the creek, or following trails through woodland and flowers, she can grant herself – and the reader – a brief reprieve from the pain and the ghosts that haunt her. She is a dreamer. She is also a bookworm, literature providing a further escape from her unhappiness. Fictitious characters from story books are absorbed into her life to the point where they become her reality, influencing her decisions and opinions. Her father may be absent, but he is the ever-present black hole which sucks in her emotions, her thoughts, her very being.
Despite the gentle way the story unfolds, the book is a page-turner. Slowly and subtly, delicately camouflaged in small detail, Frye bares all. We tiptoe through her childhood, sharing her setbacks and dashed hopes. We suffer her desperate need for affection and we long to comfort her. It is a memoir that draws the reader into her world and the experience is unforgettable. When we reach the end, the tone of her final acceptance is a lesson to us all.
Frye’s nail-biting lack of confidence, her struggle to understand her parents’ divorce and her endless nightmares, are interspersed with closely observed cameos of the natural world. By sneaking off to the creek, or following trails through woodland and flowers, she can grant herself – and the reader – a brief reprieve from the pain and the ghosts that haunt her. She is a dreamer. She is also a bookworm, literature providing a further escape from her unhappiness. Fictitious characters from story books are absorbed into her life to the point where they become her reality, influencing her decisions and opinions. Her father may be absent, but he is the ever-present black hole which sucks in her emotions, her thoughts, her very being.
Despite the gentle way the story unfolds, the book is a page-turner. Slowly and subtly, delicately camouflaged in small detail, Frye bares all. We tiptoe through her childhood, sharing her setbacks and dashed hopes. We suffer her desperate need for affection and we long to comfort her. It is a memoir that draws the reader into her world and the experience is unforgettable. When we reach the end, the tone of her final acceptance is a lesson to us all.
October 5, 2020
Sandra Frye’s memoir is a beautiful telling of her pain as a child, growing up without her father. It is a wonderful depiction of ‘50’s family life, and the struggles that wear on the hearts of children who suffer the loss of a parent in their lives.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews