It’s Berkeley in the 1960s, and all Martha Goldenthal wants is to do well at Berkeley High and plan for college. But her home life is a cauldron of kooky ideas, impossible demands, and explosive physical violence. Her father, Jules, is an iconoclast who hates academia and can’t control his fists. Her mother, Willa, has made a career of victimhood and expects Martha and her siblings, Hildy and … Drew, to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, Jules’s classical record store, located directly across the street from the U.C. Berkeley campus, is ground zero for riots and tear gas.
Martha perseveres with the help of her best friend, who offers laughter, advice about boys, and hospitality. But when Willa and Jules divorce and Jules loses his store and livelihood, Willa goes entirely off the rails. A heartless boarding school placement, eviction from the family home, and an unlikely custody case wind up putting Martha and Drew in Jules’s care. Can Martha stand up to her father to do the one thing she knows she must—go to college?
With its running “soundtrack” of classical recordings and rock music and its vivid scenes of Berkeley at its most turbulent, Shrug is the absorbing, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting story of one young woman’s journey toward independence.
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I really enjoy reading historical fiction and Lisa does an amazing job depicting life in 1960 with UC Berkley as part of the backdrop.
Her writing style is smooth and flows really well and kept my interest from the beginning.
With her end goal being to get an education – Martha, Hilda and Drew have a VERY bumpy road ahead.
Their parents (Jules and Willa) – just wow. Domestic violence is a regular occurrence in her home. Her father doesn’t know when enough a enough.
Martha does her best to excel in school and also participated in music. The other two tend to fend for themselves.
This story is a mixture of heartbreak, tenderness, fear, hope and memorable and emotional. It’s a ride worth taking.
The main character Martha completely engages the reader by revealing the complex emotions brought on by living in an abusive home. The author brings the reader into this young girls thought process and allows you to clearly see she simply wants to feel loved. Shrug is a wonderful novel that acknowledges the struggles of children raised by dysfuntional parents. I love Martha and cheered for her thoughout the book.
It’s difficult to be a teenager in the best of circumstances and for Martha, growing up in a totally dysfunctional family during the tumultuous changes of the 1960s, it was impossible for her to feel good about herself as she entered her teenage years. She developed a shrug of her shoulders, a uncontrollable tic that made life even worse but that she couldn’t stop doing. This novel is the story of how Martha navigated her teenage years until it was time for her to go to college.
Martha lived with her parents, older sister and younger brother in Berkeley, California. Her father owned a record store near the campus and her mother stayed at home. When her father got angry, he took his anger out with his fists – hitting not only her mother but also the three children. He always felt bad afterwards but the damage was already done. Her mother was self-centered and cared only about herself and her pain. In one instance early in the book, she refused to write a note for Martha after she missed a day of school for sickness. She said it was Martha’s own fault that she was sick and she could take the consequences. The ongoing pain in the household made the three kids rely heavily on each other plus Martha had a best friend who helped her through some of her rough times. As is the case in many situations like this, even though Martha feared and hated her parents she also longed for their approval. This intense story is about how Martha navigated her teenage years – will she be able to go to college or will she end up pregnant, on drugs or running away from home? Will she finally be able to have an independent life without her parents?
I grew up in a very supportive and loving family and the things that happened in this book were totally beyond my comprehension which made the book even more interesting to me. I have always wondered why some people who grow up in situations like this end up succeeding in life while others let their rough childhood drag them down throughout their lives. This was a well written and interesting book based in part by the author’s own childhood. Thanks to her publisher for a copy of this book to read and review.
This book pulled me into a world that was deeply troubling, but full of resilience and embracing of life. The main character, a teenage girl whose family engages in significant abuse and neglect, finds her way through a dark maze of growing up, not letting her “tic” get the better of her. Music permeates the whole thing wonderfully; there’s even a musical appendix! And for anyone who remembers Berkeley in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s, this is a treasure trove.
All i can say is Wow! A powerful coming of age story set in the late 60s early 70s. The writer has a way of writing to make you feel like you there. I felt like they fly on the wall that everyone wishes they could be when something happens. I felt everything that Martha was going through and feeling. I was on an emotional rollercoaster, The writing made me angry at times and at other times had me crying, and other times i even let out a giggle or two, but the whole time i wanted nothing but the best for Martha because after everything she really deserved it. The title of the book is a play on what is “naturally” going on with Martha. I don’t know how Moss did it but she managed to pull me away from my normal go to fantasy novel and pushed me towards one of the most heart felt Historical Fiction reads I’ve come across. Easily a 5 star. Will now be added to my list of YA books to recommend!
Hildy, Martha, and Drew are surviving in a dysfunctional childhood that is certain to leave them scarred adults. Physically, emotionally, and verbally abused, fear of being torn from the family is more frightening than the fear of the known…
Shrug chronicles their lives from Martha ‘s narrarative, with the shrug being her ever present nervous tic.
The story ends abruptly leaving the reader with unanswered questions…such as how does this broken family progress?
The writing is easy to follow and alarmingly captivating. Despite the content, it is one that is hard to put down…
“All I could was hope, because I didn’t have a backup plan. Backup plans were for people who weren’t already pushing their luck just in having regular plans.”
I recently had the pleasure of reading Lisa Braver Moss’s book “Shrug”, a coming of age story about a young girl from a dysfunctional family. We may all think that we come from difficult families, but “Shrug” describes a truly harrowing upbringing from a singular perspective and point in time. In the same vein as “Educated”, the young protagonist describes parents whose view of life are completely out of the mainstream and her struggle to satisfy the conflicting demands of family and the greater world at large. The book is written for teen girls and I found myself racing to the end to see how it would all end. I would recommend this book to any adult, for its take no prisoners account of child abuse and for the ways in which a child’s perspective illuminates the adult world. I heartily recommend this book; it is a great read.
Jonathan Gill
So emotional! A must read!
Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Shrug” by Lisa Braver Moss, She Writes Press, August 13, 2020, for Suzy Approved Book Tours
Lisa Braver Moss, the author of “Shrug” has written an intense, captivating, memorable, and thought-provoking novel. The genres for this book are Coming of Age, Domestic Fiction, with some Historical Fiction. The timeline for this book is set in the 1960s. There is a theme of popular music of the times and classical music, and I was thrilled to see some Beatles songs and others mentioned. The story takes place near Berkley, and there are mentions of riots and tear-gassing. The author also discusses domestic violence against children and spouses. The author describes the characters as complex and complicated. The family is dysfunctional, and some of the characters are unbalanced and mean-spirited.
The Goldenthal family is a highly dysfunctional volcano that is waiting to erupt. Unfortunately for the children, Martha, Hilda, and Drew, they witness the physical and emotional abuse from their father Jules, and their mother Willa. Martha tries her best in school as she is growing up, and she excels at singing and playing the violin. Martha develops a nervous habit of a “shrug”, Hilda and the youngest Drew also are pretty much fending for themselves.
Through Martha’s narration, we see the difficulties and troublesome times, and how friendships are so important. I appreciate that the author discusses issues of family abandonment, and how emotional and physical abuse can affect children. I would recommend this powerful, deep, dark, memorable, emotional, and thought-provoking story.
Music and politics of the sixties with a sobering family drama.
Moss has a tremendous gift for voice and symbols, ear for music, talent for compulsively readable prose and feel for the tender years where a girl keeps trying to do the right thing even if the “rules” keep changing. Teenage Martha has perfect pitch, an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for her manically dysfunctional family, a quest for logic, and a myopia about her gifts. You can see her trying to assimilate what’s happening into some type of remedy for how to make her parents love and behave as they should. The harder she tries the more she’s told not to take things so seriously. No wonder she has the stress-induced tic of a shrug. This novel, which reads like a “you-are-there” memoir, takes achingly relatable teenage angst and subjects it to parents so off-the-rails that the explosive Berkley antics around the Vietnam War “outside,” pale next to the domestic horror of the war at home…and then sets it to music. A book with a voice for generations, from Boomers to their grandchildren.
This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Shrug: A Novel
Author: Lisa Braver Moss
Star Rating: 5 Stars
Number of Readers: 16
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Cover: 9/10
Of the 16 readers:
16 would read another book by this author.
15 thought the cover was good or excellent.
16 felt it was easy to follow.
16 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
Of all the readers, 7 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
Of all the readers, 9 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
15 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
16 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘The best way to describe this novel is ‘uplifting’. And it really is. I loved the historical setting; that was super-interesting. I also liked Martha and felt for her as attempts to get through family life and stand up to the dad. This is a fab book for teenagers.’ Girl, aged 15
‘Interesting characters and lots of dilemmas for the girl to overcome. The music and the setting were very original as I have never read a book set in 1960s. I thought it was educational but also a very interesting read. It’s a sort of coming-of-age story but I’m glad I don’t have the family she has. I would read another book by this author.’ Girl, aged 14
‘I didn’t even know where Berkeley was until I read this book. Great characters. The parents are particularly complex – and also a bit stupid. I don’t think they have any idea how to raise children. The narrator has a good voice for this novel; she’s sensitive and often confused by the adults and how they behave.’ Boy, aged 16
‘Amazing novel. Loved it. I really got into the characters’ heads. Teenagers will find this gripping. I did!’ Girl, aged 15
To Sum It Up:
‘A complex and compelling coming-of-age story. A FINALIST and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Though I surely find fiction engrossing, only two novels have left me in tears. The first was long ago, upon finishing Wallace Stegner’s All the Little Live Things. The second is Shrug, which surely puts author Lisa Braver Moss in excellent company.
Though an all too realistic story about a dysfunctional family, I didn’t want Shrug to end. Moss draws the reader in with an intimate view of smart, yet innocent Martha in meeting her challenging years leading up to high school graduation. Small yet significant details evoke Martha’s life in Berkeley, helping out at her father’s store right across from the student protests on the Cal campus, down to the peculiar customers, period-specific candies and musical choices that bring this girl’s life right into the heart of the reader. You will see why Shrug has received awards, as it offers an important story for many others following along the bumpy road to independence. Martha plays violin, sings in choir and studies Latin with the energy of a focused “good girl” all while navigating the bloom of first sexual attractions – so it is a shock when physical violence, parental neglect and eventual abandonment arise in this educated, striving family.
Moss wisely resisted providing much backstory of the parents’ trauma-inducing actions, keeping the focus on Martha’s perspective; she’s a teen maintaining her academic focus and caring for her younger brother in the midst of her surprising circumstances. Martha has a friend who is a central grounding influence, providing advice, supportive sleepovers and healthy meals so there is modeling of sources of strength. However, a tension builds throughout the book; will Martha crumble, or will she perhaps flee Berkeley to begin her own story?
Schools would be wise to have Shrug in their libraries and counseling offices. It is important that this story upends several stereotypes of teens who find their parents failing in so many ways. It would take years of increasing insight for Martha to understand her childhood -no matter how perceptive she appears in navigating through familial chaos – she was left alone to carry much emotional weight. I hope that Moss has preserved material which would give us more of this character’s ongoing story – Shrug begs for a sequel.
Poignant and beautifully written story
I just finished reading Shrug and am in tears. Braver-Moss did such a beautiful job letting us in to Martha’s inner world. Over and over, I appreciated how she slowed down the story to get into the moments of her experience. I saw much of myself in her, and that’s why I am crying. I didn’t suffer the level of abuse she did, but comparison is not the point. I recommend this young girl’s story for anyone scarred by physical or emotional abuse.
In ‘Shrug’ we follow the main character Martha through her school years as she navigates the haunting episodes of her parents domestic violence which also flows over into her young life. The author Lisa Braver Moss expertly takes the reader along through the trauma without getting too explicit in the details. Ultimately uplifting while showing how resilient children can become. Excellent read!
So much more than a coming of age story, Shrug puts us in Martha Goldenthal thoughts as she experiences the ordinary trials of growing up in an anything-but-ordinary home in 1960s Berkeley, CA. Emotionally abused by an eccentric, uncaring mother, Martha must also deal with a father subject to rages, even in his own record store, when customers’ taste in classical music differs from his. Martha shares his love of music, though not his dogma, and the reader benefits from their musical knowledge along the way. Shrug is at times disturbing, poignant or humorous, but always insightful, and for me it was a page-turner. I highly recommend this wonderful book.
Shrug is a brilliant metaphor of a title that sets the stage for this coming-of-age novel. All should read the story of this gifted child with perfect pitch, forced to battle teenage self-doubt and her tumultuous family amidst the backdrop of changing times. Filled with meaning, it’s this generation’s Catcher In the Rye meets Running with Scissors.
Anyone growing up in the sixties and seventies in the San Francisco Bay area, especially Berkeley, can relate to Martha. I know I did. Abuse was more prominent back then. How Martha learned to navigate her life in a positive direction, was inspiring.
SHRUG vividly chronicles the life and coming-of-age of Martha, middle-child of abusive, clueless, and dangerously self-absorbed parents, Jules and Willa. It also chronicles just as vividly a distinct and pivotal time and place in modern American history: Berkeley, California, in the 1960s, as the anti-war movement is growing and the counterculture is emerging. I was particularly captivated by the narrator’s voice—Martha is observant, caring, hopeful, searching, and, at times, heartbreakingly wise. As her turbulent life parallels the turbulent times, music becomes a refuge and a soundtrack—for Martha and for the reader. The author is remarkably skilled in storytelling, setting, dialogue, and creating authentic characters. I loved Martha and didn’t want to say goodbye to her as the book came to its very satisfying ending.
Each domestic abuse situation is unique but for three truths. The child victims of abuse divine deep down that things aren’t supposed to be this way. Mother cats are not supposed to eat their kittens. They also defend as best they can against these mysterious brutalities. And under the defenses lies the terrible conviction: the parents’ behavior must somehow be the children’s fault.
In Shrug, a fiction book whose themes align with the memoirs of Tara Westover’s Educated and Jeanette Walls’ Glass Castle, Lisa Braver Moss captures the simultaneous fragility and toughness of a child whose odds for success are decidedly against her.
Set in Berkeley in the 1960’s, Martha’s story unfolds in a series of sharply felt vignettes from kindergarten to her senior year of high school. Her mother, Willa, full of psychobabble and bizarre convictions (she doesn’t believe in Kleenex), abdicates mothering in favor of whimpering (with toilet paper) in front of the television. Her father, Julius, owns a record store on Telegraph Avenue, and swings between battering rages, dishing out money for fast-food suppers, and sneering openly about his customers’ bad tastes in music.
Her older sister, Hildy, placates their father and Martha strives to redirect her mother’s bile. Both girls try to cushion their prime-number-reciting little brother Drew. Except from her friend Stephanie, whose humor and empathy are life-preservers, Martha has three secrets. Despite how often she’s criticized for it, her single-shoulder shrug is something she can’t control. She is certain her good grades are belied by an unfathomable stupidity. And her perfect pitch and love for classical music go unregistered by her father.
The energy coiled beneath Martha’s tic seems a somatic expression of her attempts to escape the straight jacket of her family’s relentless misery. Martha’s voice — enraged, bewildered, tender, and sometimes prescient — make us root for this young person who imagines herself on a mostly down roller-coaster ride. We’re white-knuckling it with her, and cheer her on as she valiantly struggles to get off and out.