MJ

This memoir is about a neglectful childhood in an alcoholic home. It’s also about Burke’s parents who never should have been together and about three sons brought up in a home with little love and lots of abuse. I say little love because a house where parents leave their children for hours at bars while they are at work or take the children with them to bars for hours while they drink is not love. They cared more for their drinks than the safety of their children. Mike’s parents Bill and Verma were never married because Bill said she trapped him with her first pregnancy (dated for 5 days and had sex those 5 days is not love) and so he always refused to grant her the respect of being married.
To me, it didn't come across that Verma Strelow was a battered housewife as much as you would think from what is suggested by the synopsis. She was not afraid to confront the man who was involved with gang raping her. It seemed like she was abusive to Bill back. Maybe she wasn’t but I felt like the only difference was he probably hit her more. But those instances were so few in the book it almost felt like they just tried to stay out of each other’s way.
Bill Burke always told Verma he didn't love her. He was very honest from the beginning that he didn't want to be with her, so she seemed a little delusional with thinking he would say it to her. Verma seemed like a strong person but yet she didn’t have the strength to take her boys and leave. It’s probably the way things were like back then, but I couldn’t feel too sorry for Verma who insisted she was in love with Bill after a week and insisted on being with him when he clearly said she was a whore.
The traits of the parents continued in the older sons as Fred is a drinker and has a wife Cheri who is SO abusive I don’t understand why the family didn’t stand up more for Little Freddie. I would like to know what happened to him as I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t totally messed up and in a mental institution. That’s a memoir that would be hard to read as his abuse seemed much worse than what was mentioned for Verma.
… (meer)

A memoir, yes, but in reality it is a heartbreaking story of insidious evil. The author is the youngest son of a real charmer and the woman who loved him. He lived a highly dysfunctional childhood so no matter what the naysayers write, this is HIS story as seen thru HIS eyes, life as HE understood it to be...
Bill and Verma Burke were sick. Bill with his warped views and his twisted vicious treatment of his wife. Verma in her puppy-like devotion, hoping for a sign of affection and instead getting kicked in the gut. Literally. Sick in what he did and what she accepted.
And the 3 sons? Crap trickles downward doesn't it? And it affected each of them in its way. The youngest, Michael was the 'lucky' one in that his mother had an indomitable love and a persistant hope for him. She did her best behind the scenes to teach him, to show him what was truly important.

I wound up with tears in my eyes for Verma, for what she endured, because to this day there are still too many women like her. Hoping for a hint of love. I DO understand because in a lesser way i have been there..
Michael writes from his heart, this is his view. His mothers love, i believe,is what carried him forward to where he is today.

My only critique would be the last few pages where he speaks of his own religious beliefs- i felt it detracted from the story to be honest, what kept it from a 5 star rating.… (meer)