“Frank and funny and powerful and surprising. An utterly gorgeous debut.“-Lauren GroffAcclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden’s raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, … rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight.
As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls.
With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai’i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It’s a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful.
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Harrowing and beautiful. What seems most miraculous about Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is the way T Kira Madden forges out of such achingly difficult material a memoir as frank and funny and powerful and surprising as this, her utterly gorgeous debut.
This is one of those books that I’m glad I read once but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read again. Not because it was bad but because one read is enough to haunt me with its brutal honesty and it sticks to my soul. This is a book for those of us who suffered through childhood and have no desire to relive the “glories” of our teens. It is odd, awkward, painful and gut wrenching…a poignant reflection of middle and high school horrors, growing up, grief and secrets. At some points it was so hard to read because it rang so true with bitter memories. Readers should mind trigger warnings as this story is filled with trauma and the gloves are off.
The new trend in memoir is linked essays, which is basically what T Kira Madden has done in “Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls.” But if you study the book, you’ll see that she perfectly ordered the essays in traditional three act structure, including a fabulous midpoint turning point. I was infatuated with the book from the start simply because of Madden’s writing. There is no doubt that she’s an incredible writer. But it’s that midpoint plot point that completely hooked me. The third act, which gives some background info that I yearned for throughout the book, feels in someways disconnected (primarily in the middle of the third act), but then it has a twist ending–actually two twists at the end, one that you can see coming, another that’s a complete surprise–that is stunning. This is definitely a book worth reading. It’s especially worth reading if you’re a writer working to improve your craft. Madden is a gifted writer and I can’t wait to read how she grows as an author.
A bold and mesmerizing gem. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. She has such a gift for making her language both accessible and stunning. She writes about trauma and family and forgiveness and manages to be funny, moving, and self-aware. You will fly through these pages. Don’t sleep on this one.
This memoir was beautiful in that it truly credited the reader with the ability to carry threads through chapters and scenes that were not always linear. It was smartly written and left room to be smartly interpreted. The use of language was sparse yet elegant and moving. Madden used imagery and language in a way that evoked raw emotion. It was brutal yet compassionate and written from a place of love instead of spite – something I truly admire in accounts of painful childhoods. We do love our parents, despite their imperfections and long absences.
I just read The Body Papers by Grace Talusan and am also reading Vida by Patricia Engel – the themes and characters/narrators are very complimentary. I am so inspired by this generation of memoirists.
This open, defiant memoir is the long-awaited daughter of Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina. Madden captures the dangers and longings of a perilous girlhood with prose so vivid and sensuous we feel her past in our bodies. A mesmerizing piece of art I won’t soon forget.
T Kira Madden is an acute observer of her family, her environment, and her own mind, and is generous despite — or perhaps because of — what she’s endured. Her bleeding, gorgeous prose will get under your skin and leave you aching in love. Her first book is a triumph.
Madden’s prose will hypnotize you as it wrings every drop of beauty out of her story. If you’ve ever known the predicament of having a magical and messy family, a female body, or the mixed blessing of a big heart and a keen mind in a troubled world, then you need this book as much as I did.
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is sad, funny, juicy and prickly with deep and secret thoughtful places. It is raucous and poignant at once and I recommend it highly.
I loved this book for its big-hearted, aching renderings of sexuality, addiction, and family, for its exquisite attentiveness, and in the end for its hope that a family can grow to embrace all it’s been and might become.
Madden has come to break your heart open: to crack your heart wide, to spill out the heart’s grief and pain so she can fill it back up with joy and beauty and love.
Madden perfectly captures the ache of a child trying to find her place. You may not be a competitive equestrian, a Floridian, or the mixed race child of two parents who struggle with addiction; you may have never fallen in love with another woman; but everyone who has ever longed for more love will understand.
What are the ties that bind us, the events that shape us? In this beautiful memoir T Kira Madden confronts these questions, unflinchingly, with breath-taking honesty. Reminiscent of The Glass Castle, her unique vision and voice take us into the depths of her astonishing experience.