Southern Discomfort

Author: Tena Clark
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Atria Books, 2018
Pages: 320Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In her memoir that is a "story of love and fury", Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer Tena Clark recounts her chaotic childhood in a time fraught with racial and social tension. Tena was born in 1953 win a tiny Mississippi town close to the Alabama border, where the legacy of slavery and social injustice still permeated every aspect of life. On the outside, Tena's childhood looked like a fairytale. Her father was one of the richest men in the sate; her mother was a regal beauty. The family lived on a sprawling farm and had the only swimming pool in town; Tena was given her first car - a royal blue Camaro - at twelve.

But behind closed doors, Tena's family life was deeply lonely and dysfunctional. By the time she was three, her parents' marriage had dissolved into a swamp of alcohol, rampant infidelity, and guns. Adding to the turmoil, Tena understood from a very young age that she was different than her three older sisters, all of whom had been beauty queens and majorettes. Tena knew that she didn't want to be a majorette - she wanted to marry one.

On Tena's tenth birthday, her mother, emboldened by alcoholism and enraged by her husband's incessant cheating, walked out the door for good, instantly becoming an outcast in their society. Tena was left in the care of her nanny, Virgie, even though she was raising nine of her own children and was not allowed to eat from the family's plates or use their bathroom. It was Virgie's acceptance and unconditional love that gave Tena the courage to stand up to her domineering father, the faith to believe in her mother's love, and the strength to be her true self.

Review: I have been unable to focus on books since we went into quarantine. I've started many, and may come back to a lot of them, but this month, Southern Discomfort was the only one I was able to see to completion.

I've always enjoyed memoirs of people growing up with crazy, tumultuous childhoods who somehow to turn out to be successful adults. It's interesting, and so very different from my own experiences.