A daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to retrace her mother’s life in a memoir that is both a narrative and an archive of one family’s troubled history. “This shattering memoir combines image and text to reveal a portrait of home.”—Elle When Danielle Geller’s mother dies of alcohol withdrawal during an attempt to get sober, Geller returns to Florida and finds her mother’s life … Florida and finds her mother’s life packed into eight suitcases. Most were filled with clothes, except for the last one, which contained diaries, photos, and letters, a few undeveloped disposable cameras, dried sage, jewelry, and the bandana her mother wore on days she skipped a hair wash.
Geller, an archivist and a writer, uses these pieces of her mother’s life to try and understand her mother’s relationship to home, and their shared need to leave it. Geller embarks on a journey where she confronts her family’s history and the decisions that she herself had been forced to make while growing up, a journey that will end at her mother’s home: the Navajo reservation.
Dog Flowers is an arresting, photo-lingual memoir that masterfully weaves together images and text to examine mothers and mothering, sisters and caretaking, and colonized bodies. Exploring loss and inheritance, beauty and balance, Danielle Geller pays homage to our pasts, traditions, and heritage, to the families we are given and the families we choose.
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Read 1.10.2021
This is a tough book to read. Extremely. Especially if you have suffered trauma yourself. I thought this was more about the Indian experience when I was approached to read and review this, and I should have done more research before accepting that challenge. That said, I am not sorry that I read this. And here is why; in reading this, I’ve realized, that for all the the crap that my father did to me [and to our family as a whole and continues to do], he –
1. Never tried to kill my sister or myself. He may have beat me and smacked me around, but he never, ever tried to physically snuff me or my sister [or my mom or step-mom’s for that matter] out.
2. He always picked women [and there were LOTS of women] that had jobs, homes of their own, that were nice, that had lives that weren’t on the edge of anything crazy. They may have drank a lot, but there were no drugs and we were never ever in danger when we were with them and their friends.
3. He ALWAYS had a job himself [sometimes several] and he always fed and clothed us when we were with him [and made sure we had those things when we were with my Mom] – even as a high-functioning drunk, he knew we needed to eat.
4. He wasn’t in and out of jail. The cops weren’t always at our house. He never did [that I ever knew of] anything illegal.
And in reading this memoir, I have realized, that for all the crap I suffered at the hands of him as a child, teen and adult, I still have room to be grateful. I know that sounds weird – how does one be grateful when there is known abuse [and I know that not everyone gets this and I both see and acknowledge you. I am so sorry that you have suffered at the hand of a parent and that you have never gotten closure. I cannot imagine how difficult your life must have been and continues to be. My heart breaks for you and I pray that you can find the truth and end that you need to move forward]? Because you read things that remind you that it ALWAYS could have been worse. We were never homeless. We always had a place to live and food on the table. It might have been just mac and cheese, but we ate. And that is something to be grateful for. And even though Danielle isn’t able to forgive her father [and there is absolutely NO judgement here], I have found that forgiveness has helped me at certain times. Maybe because I am not a writer, it is how I move forward. I don’t know. I DO know that you have to do whatever you need to do to move forward. And I applaud her for that.
There are no other words for how I feel right now about this. I am so glad she came out on the other side of all that she experienced, that she is one of the lucky ones. Even for all that she went through, she is absolutely one of the lucky ones. Not everyone makes it through to the other side and finds even a semblance of happiness.
Thank you to NetGalley, Danielle Geller, and Random House Publishing – Random House/One World for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Dog Flowers is the diary of Danielle Geller, a girl on a journey to the past to find out her mother’s truth while in tandem finding her own journey. Having drug and alcohol abuse in my own family, I instantly identified with Danielle in a lot of ways, her words evoking memories of my own past, and unlocking pain that I have carefully tucked away, not yet wanting to deal with. The courage and bravery that Danielle shows by putting her words out there, and sharing her remarkable story, is commendable.
Like a diary, the writing is imperfectly perfect, each chapter focusing on a different facet of life, cohesively going back and forth, from the past to the present. The pan and anguish of finding her mother’s life, while trying to find her own, is evident on every page, the vibes making this a depressing, yet surprisingly educational read.
To get a glimpse into another person’s life like this is why I am so drawn to memoirs. In Dog Flowers Danielle even includes photos that she found in her mother’s things, describing each photo in detail, adding even more depth to the already heavy narrative, bonding you more and more to Danielle and her family.
I found Dog Flowers to be a hard, yet wonderfully powerful story of self-discovery, and motivates me to look to my own family, and find those truths that have been too painful to know.
*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I received from the publisher through NetGalley. All views and opinions are completely honest, and my own.
I read a review copy, and if what I read is what ends up being published, then I cannot recommend this book. As is, it need serious editing and plenty of rewriting.
The writing came across as disjointed, jumping from time and place, as well as person to random person with little to no introduction or even explanation. As a reader, I got no real insight into Gellar’s thoughts and feelings, past or present, and I certainly didn’t get to go on a journey of discovery with her. It was so frustrating.
This exercise of writing might be cathartic for the the author, but what I read does not meet the basic criteria of a book ready for publication.
Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Netgalley
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller is a touching, raw, heartbreaking, and yet fascinating memoir. Here the author presents a beyond challenging, difficult, and rough upbringing. She shows the reader the flaws and faults that her parents both were riddled with and how these issues resulted in the instability, problems, and difficulties she and her siblings experiences in their childhood, and for some, into adulthood.
It was hard to read all the things the author went through, and I cannot even imagine how brave she must have been to be able to address, acknowledge, and face head on during her journey that she wrote of in this book. There are moments of sunshine that occasionally escape through the heavy clouds, but overall it is dark. I truly appreciate the author allowing us to be a part of this personal and raw journey. My heart goes out to her, and she seems stronger now because of her experiences.
I also truly enjoyed reading more about the Navajo culture and reservation. It was fascinating to learn more about this complex and intricate culture.
5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.