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| Hungry Hill |
| A Memoir |
Carole O'Malley Gaunt |
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| A clear-eyed account of a teenage
girl coping with the sudden loss of
her mother and the slow decline of
her father |
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On a sweltering June night in 1959, Betty O'Malley died
from lymphatic cancer, leaving behind an alcoholic husband and eight shell-shocked
children -- seven sons and one daughter, ranging in age from two to fifteen years.
The daughter, Carole, was thirteen at the time. In this poignant memoir, she recalls
in vivid detail the chaotic course of her family life over the next four years.
The
setting for the story is Hungry Hill, an Irish-Catholic working-class neighborhood
in Springfield, Massachusetts. Grief-stricken over his wife's death, Joe O'Malley,
a mid-level executive at an insurance company, spends his nights on the living room
sofa listening to the sentimental ballads of Frank Sinatra, a tumbler of whiskey
always nearby. At first Carole struggles to pull her father back from his world of
teary, boozesoaked memories. Slipping into her mother's role, she "holds the fort"
and
works at keeping her seven brothers in
line, straining to give the shaky household
a semblance of normalcy, while
also trying to keep her own dreams alive.
She is drawn to the high school world of
dances, academic honors, and the excitement
of her first kiss, but the weight of
apprehension for her family sets her apart
from that carefree social scene.
Fifteen months after his wife's death,
Joe takes a new wife -- Mary Ford, a
bristling and difficult woman. While
Joe passes off Mary's outbreaks of rage
and physical abuse as "nerves," the
short-lived marriage turns into an endless
merry-go-round of cocktail parties
and hotel bars. Before long, Joe's health
collapses and he dies, leaving his children
orphaned for the second time.
Carole O'Malley Gaunt recounts
this sad story with remarkable clarity,
humor, and insight. The narrative is
punctuated by occasional fictional scenes
that allow the adult Carole to comment
on her teenage experiences and to probe
the impact of her mother's death and her
father's alcoholism.
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