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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Lisa’s handling of a difficult subject is quite enlightening. We’re able to read about abuse and/but understand it, in a way, from the perspective of a daughter. I was disappointed when the book ended – I wanted it to go on and on!
This book is not only for adults but for teenagers who will identify with the main character and understand a topic that is often not discussed, but, unfortunately, common in every community. Bravo to Lisa for writing a lovely story that is interesting and topical on many levels.
If you were an anxious teenager or a teen filled with self-doubt, you will find yourself in this book. Lisa Braver Moss’s Shrug is the story of Martha, a middle child growing up in an abusive family who feels a loyalty to her incompetent mother and a well-justified dislike for her physically abusive father. She develops a physical tic in response to the trauma of her home life but finds chosen family in her friendship circle. Martha is complex, thoughtful, and, because the story is told in the first person past tense, able to narrate the story of her adolescence from some age beyond it. We don’t know what that age is, but it’s hard to imagine a story told from the point of view of a teenager that would resonate as deeply with an adult reader as this one does.
Lisa Braver Moss renders scenes that are vivid both visually and aurally because of the musical references that weave throughout the narrative. I grew up on the east coast, too young to have lived through the 60s, and my classical music education is lacking. Still, I could hear the soundtrack in my head, see the street life, imagine the protests, and fully grok life in Berkeley and Oakland from the perspective of a troubled young person singularly focused on protecting her family and her future despite the conflicts that required her to navigate.
This is a beautifully written, evocative book that will draw you in and remind you to be proud to have survived whatever trauma or challenge you had to overcome as a younger person. And if you’re a young person you’ll find an ally in Martha, whose grit, perseverance, and honest reflection on the occasional faultiness of her own moral compass will help you stand up for yourself and others when you need to, and forgive yourself when you make mistakes.
When I read the description I was interested but didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did. I like how it takes place in the 60’s. The author did an excellent job at making it a very vivid and lively read about that time. You really feel like you’re in the time period even if you’re not familiar, which is what I struggle with in some books. I really enjoyed the book!