A violent ex-con forces his son to commit crimes in this riveting new memoirGrowing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David Crow and his three siblings idolized their dad. Tall, strong, smart, and brave, the self-taught Cherokee regaled his family with stories of his World War II feats. But as time passed, David discovered the other side of Thurston Crow, the ex-con with his own code of ethics … ex-con with his own code of ethics that justified cruelty, violence, lies—even murder.
A shrewd con artist with a genius IQ, Thurston intimidated David with beatings to coerce him into doing his criminal bidding. David’s mom, too mentally ill to care for her children, couldn’t protect him. One day, Thurston packed up the house and took the kids, leaving her with nothing. Soon he remarried, and David learned that his stepmother was just as vicious and abusive as his father.
Through sheer determination, and with the help of a few angels along the way, David managed to get into college and achieve professional success. When he finally found the courage to stop helping his father with his criminal activities, he unwittingly triggered a plot of revenge that would force him into a showdown with Thurston Crow. With lives at stake, including his own, David would have only twenty-four hours to outsmart his father—the brilliant, psychotic man who bragged that the three years he spent in the notorious San Quentin State Prison had been the easiest time of his life.
The Pale-Faced Lie is a searing, raw, palpable memoir that reminds us what an important role our parents play in our lives. Most of all, it’s an inspirational story about the power of forgiveness and the ability of the human spirit to rise above adversity, no matter the cost.
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David Crow tells his life story in The Pale Faced Lie. He grows up on the Navajo Indian Reservation with his family. Because of his mother’s mental illness, he and his siblings endure abuse from his con man father, Thurston. Thurston decides to leave with David and siblings and everything they own with them, leaving his mother behind. Thurston remarries to a woman that is just as abusive as himself. David is determined to get away from these horrible circumstances. He finally is able to move away when he goes away to college and becomes independently successful. However, he still feels the clutches of his father and continues to enable his behavior. That is until he decides he can no longer do so and wants revenge. This event brings a whole new meaning in his life.
The Pale Faced Lie was a hard read for me. Not because of the writing but because of the heavy issues it dealt with. It was really hard to get through some of the abuse he went through. He went through some tough things in his life. I admired David’s will and determination to move away from his past, making something of himself and learning how forgive his father. It has to take a lot of guts for him to do so.
I am giving The Pale Faced Lie four and a half stars. I would recommend this book, especially for readers who have dealt with abusive parents or even getting a glimpse of what it is like growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
I received this book from the publisher. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.
Tragic and heart-wrenching, but impossible to stop reading. This true story of an ex-con father who tries to manipulate his son. It’s truly amazing that this author came out the other side with the ability to share his life.
The best memoirs read like fiction. It’s easy to forget, when reading David Crow’s chilling tale, that the author actually lived through it. Clear your schedule, because once you start reading it, you won’t want to do anything else until the ride comes to a complete stop.
THE PALE-FACED LIE
By David Crow
Thank you to David Crow & Sandra Jonas Publishing for the gifted copy of this book. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
Well I just finished this novel and it’s story and writing couldn’t have been more fascinating or brilliant. From the first page I was drawn into this real life madness of a little boy’s POV of his life growing up since the age of 3, throughout his teens and into adulthood, written by the Author himself of the horrific abuse he endured, as well as his mother & sisters and brother by their father.
It sickened me at points what trauma was caused by the physical and mental abuse David Crow’s father inflicted. Thurston Crow was not who he claimed to be and was a horrible ex-con who served time for murder in San Quentin. As he became notorious for, he bragged how he manipulated the system, people, just about everyone, getting them to believe he was someone that he was not. He was a liar, cheat, murderer, adulterer, abuser, maniac that was so warped but had a way of hurting people but still getting them to give him chance after chance. He even ended up with a Government job by outsmarting the public and no one knowing of his past.
David was the eldest born son of Thurston and was the one his dad went to to try and teach him his crimes and methods to defraud, steal and even murder. David was hard of hearing and had poor eyesight, he was moved around throughout his life moving school to school. He would be made fun of and bullied and his Dad would be angered that David was weak and being bullied so he would end up being severely abused by Dad. David kept it a secret. His mental ill mom stood by and could do nothing as someone who was also a victim. David’s Dad from an early age had told David they were going to get rid of “mom” and there are many stories you won’t believe.
This is a book that is so hard to put down, makes you want to enter the story and help poor David out. It is filled with horrors you cannot fathom. But despite Thurston wanting to turn David into his “mini me”, you need to read and see what David went through and what he has become.
This needs to be read and we all as a society need to play our part and not turn away victims that could be saved and not have to endure lives such as this family had to. We need to know what to look for; the warning signs. This book I would give 5 Stars to a million times over and over. I definitely recommend and promise you will thank me for telling you to read it!
I want to start by saying how happy I am that David Crow decided to share his story and write The Pale-Faced Lie. As someone who also had a difficult childhood (although the craziness ended for me when I was 12 and I wasn’t a little hellion) I can understand how hard it would be to put your story out in the world for people to judge. His experiences were so hard to read about, but I’m glad I had a chance to read this book and I applaud him for writing it.
The Pale-Faced Lie really opened my eyes to what life was like on a Navajo Indian Reservation in the 50s and 60s and I feel like I learned a lot of different things, not just about the author’s life. I also really liked the pictures that were included in the book and I really wish there had been more of them. I love memoir’s that include pictures so I can get little snapshots of what people actually looked like and put names to faces. Crow has a fascinating life story, and one that I know will stick with me a long time. His dad was an interesting, to put it nicely, man and I couldn’t believe some of the things that happened in this book.
I ended up reading the beginning of The Pale-Faced Lie, but then I switched over to audio which I think is the way to go with this book. Even though the author doesn’t narrate it, I really enjoyed the narrator Kaipo Schwab and think he did a fantastic job bringing David Crow’s story to life. If you are going to read this book I would recommend having the physical copy for the pictures and doing the audio for actually reading it.
Song/s the book brought to mind Help! by The Beatles
Final Thought: For David Crow’s story, you really do have to read it to believe it. So many crazy things happen in this book, and you definitely get the picture of what a dysfunctional family he had. I really felt for him and I wouldn’t wish most of what happened on anyone no matter what. If you are looking for a fascinating memoir, you will find it in The Pale-Faced Lie!
My many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book, all opinions and thoughts are my own.
A book that enforces the fact, that we are all products of our upbringing! Thankfully some rise above it.
If you liked The Glass Castle, you will love The Pale-Faced Lie.
A gripping memoir about a true life based on a lie.
Sometimes real-life stories have more fascinating plots than any fiction, but the narration of factual events alone, even with expertly crafted prose, is often not enough to captivate the reader. This is where many memoirs fail. A successful memoir has to engage the reader emotionally; it should make you feel what the narrator is feeling—you should experience their experience fully. It must be narrated from the heart. This is where the powerful truth of The Pale-Faced Lie excels.
David Crow’s harrowing memoir of the abuse, violence, and deceit that he and his siblings experienced at the hands of their father is riveting (although a neglectful mother with mental illness and a stepmother with a mean streak also had an impact). But what’s more compelling is the depth of Crow’s resilience, his drive to thrive, and his unwavering conviction that forgiveness is the way out of the death grip of a traumatic childhood he wasn’t able to control.
Each page I read linked me deeper into Crow’s life. His writing is so vivid and infused with feeling that I felt like I was living every moment of his early years with him. I often cried, as it felt like he was describing my own life in an entirely different setting, but I laughed even more at his exploits as a kid—he may have been even more mischievous than I was during my bad-boy years. Growing up, Crow pulls out every trick in (and out of) the book to find his freedom from home. He and his younger brother Sam make the perfect bad-boy team. But deep inside, bad boys they are not. They’re just lost boys, without any guidance or purpose, trying to feel alive outside of the family nightmare they are stuck in. By the end of the book, I felt we could have been brothers.
But why is it that some of the toughest childhoods make the best life stories?
Surviving child abuse will always leave behind some trauma, often for life. Some kids will never overcome it. Others feed on that pain and the feeling of worthlessness to grow stronger, vowing to overcome any odds to succeed and never be like their parents. They triumph by living entirely different lives. It is in the toughest moments that we forge the strength and determination to lead our own lives. But we can never forget the past. It’s part of us, of who we are, who we have become, and it often comes back to haunt us for decades. Living in the past can destroy lives, but David Crow shows us the way to find peace.
The Pale-Faced Lie is an incredible story about the resilience of a young boy and his siblings growing up in a poor family rife with violence, abuse, and neglect. A gripping memoir about a true life based on a lie.
Sometimes I had to put this book down, because I hate nothing more than seeing a child abused. Yet I knew he survived and excelled in life, so I had to read on to find out how. David’s writing keeps the story engaging. He does not look for sympathy from the reader. Instead, he transports the reader to the moment with him, so you experience it, and introduces us to a world many of us will never know—the reality of life on the reservation. With both impaired vision and hearing that his father refuses to acknowledge, he muddles through confusing classrooms. Growing up in fear of his father, and often his surroundings, he lashes out in any way his creative mind can express, performing pranks that are often cruel and dangerous. They make you wonder how many other problem children are victims at home. Thankfully, kind people occasionally enter David’s life and offer a vision of a different way to live, but the years of abuse pile up and make it more and more difficult for David. You will end up both fearing and cheering for him, as he struggles to make his way in the world against the odds.
i love the writer writes it
An interesting, but depressing read. I felt too much of the book was spent convincing the reader how awful the author’s early life was without enough devoted to how the scars were overcome to be a whole human later. Certainly writing the book must have been cathartic, but the real value for the rest of us was lost.
THE PALE-FACED LIE is a remarkably tragic tale of the author’s nightmarish childhood.
Raised on an Indian Reservation, the author (and to a lesser degree, his siblings) endured unspeakable mental and physical abuse from his parents, while also being bullied by schoolmates and neighborhood scoundrels.
If this were fiction, I would have been critical of it, stating it was unrealistic, that all of the terror and horror that filled the pages of this book were just too far off the charts to be believable. But it is a true story, and knowing that keeps you turning the pages, unable to look away. And while you think it will get better at some point, it never seems to offer that relief.
Don’t get me wrong, this book is not just a mere collection of tragedies, it is an unforgettable story that will leave you thinking about the author and his family members–especially his father–for a long time to come.
The author, David Crow, is an exceptional writer. As you read his story, you’ll wonder how he came to be. How did he even survive, much less thrive? How did he overcome bad eyesight, dyslexia, and a host of other ailments, not to mention a lifetime of being told how worthless he was, to become a successful businessman and accomplished author? These are the questions that keep you turning the pages, and that kept me up way past my usual bedtime reading just one more chapter.
This book rips you to the core as you learn about the physical and mental abuse suffered by children at the hands of their own criminal father (no spoilers). It’s real, heartbreaking yet hopeful. Above all, resilience and courage prevail. How the author moves through a process of forgiveness fighting all of the emotions that go with it – captivating is an understatement. His writing causes us to reflect on our own lives and whether or not we would have the strength and courage he did. A riveting true story that will bring you to tears…
David Crow David Crow’s incredible resilience shines through this story The Pale-Faced Lie of triumph over adversity. I felt a kinship with him as I read of his challenges and triumphs. What makes one child so persistent and undefeatable, and another crumble? It’s a question for the ages, but we can never have enough of these kinds of stories and examples.
Respectfully, TW Neal (Author of Freckled, a Memoir of Growing up Wild in Hawaii)
This book will make most of us appreciate our parents. David Crow does a great job of honestly and respectfully depicting life on the Navajo reservation.
This book was written by a survivor, I usually don’t read this type because they bring back memories but this one caught me. It’s a down and dirty account of growing up with a mentally ill Mother and an abusive Father. Instead of it being every one for themselves the kids stick together to protect and overcome. It details life for a light skin around the reservations near Gallup and other New Mexico sites. Interesting for the outlook, the ways the kids compensated and how they overcame adversity to become productive in life.
This memoir was fashioned from the blood, sweat and tears of a child. It was a hard won battle and is, therefore a hard story to read.
David Crow’s memoir of his childhood will make you shake with anger and wish, at times you could travel back in time to rescue him and his siblings.
David Crow tried to be all his father wanted, first out of love and then, out of fear. David tried to do what so many little boys do and cannot… protect those he loved from harm and when he couldn’t he blamed himself…but do not think his story is all bleak for this is not a Gothic novel.
David Crow’s memoir, A Pale Faced Lie also carries hope and love. Read it for yourself and soon and you, too, shall see that amids the lies, the hate, the hurt, all the time there was always hope. And the power of forgiveness.
Spoiler alert: I can’t get out of my mind his participation in the burying of a body. Did he ever go to the police, after his dad’s death? Whoever was murdered was loved by someone. Are they doomed to never know what happened? That’s where this book lost me.