West of Then

West of Then: A Mother, A Daughter, and a Journey Past Paradise
Tara Bray Smith

I have mixed feelings about this book. At times the disjointed writing and style drove me mad but yet I found myself staying up too late to finish the book.

So....This is a memoir of a 30-ish woman who grew up in Hawaii with a drug-addicted mother (heroin is her drug of choice but she isn't too picky). That is the short version. Her family has lived on the islands for 4 or 5 generations. As she tells about her history and her family's, she also relates some of the history of Hawaii. I think she is trying to go for an idea of a fallen paradise -- both for the islands themselves and for her family. It is a a sad and moving story.

The present day setting of the story is Tara trying to find and help her mother who is homeless. That part of the story is what kept me reading -- wanting to know how it turned out and trying to figure out what motivated Tara to keep trying with her mom.

I was also intrigued by her mother's life as a drug addict. It hit a little closer to home than I would have liked. My idea, and probably most people's, of rock bottom is far from what is really rock bottom. It's a very sobering (no pun intended) look at the pain caused by drug addiction.

I would give it 3.5/5 stars.

[Auspicious]

I just finished this one over the weekend. I had gotten it for Christmas but then laid it aside until Nellie's review made me pick it up again.

I've never met Tara Bray Smith but she's the friend of a friend, and she had written a book for my old company, which I copyedited, and which she mentions writing on page 36 of this book (if you can follow all that). So I had heard of several years ago and it was always in the context of "Oh she's really good and she's going to be big." And of course what can you say to that but "Oh, uh-huh." So I had to laugh when I saw this as a featured book on Salon in the fall. Holy cow, she really did write a book and it's been pretty well-received--that's awesome!

So anyway, this is very sad in a way that's kind of a drag, but I'm glad I read it because I feel like I understand the drug addiction and homlessness thing that much better now. And, though they're far from heroin addicts, I feel like I understand FH's relationship with some of his senior family members a bit better--like his tendency to be repeatedly disappointed by them even though their behavior is pretty predictable. The author's point that "The dream of transformation is something one gives up slowly, if at all" is well taken.

For anyone who likes the Hawaii angle on this (it's definitely a place with a really interesting history and culture), I happened to be reading a novel called Middle Son by Deborah Iida right before this one and it makes for a sort of nice foil for West of Then. Whereas this is the story of a privileged plantation-owning lineage gone to seed, Middle Son is from the perspective of the child of a loving-but-tragic Japanese family living in the fieldworkers' camps. The two books talk about some of the same things, but from different sides of the glass. And Middle Son was good in it's own right.

Overall, I agree with the assessment of 3.5/5 stars.

Ok, I have Middle Son on my bookshelf and have for a while. I've moved it, so now I think I'll read it!

I agree, Julie, that this book brought some greater understanding of my DH's family. Sometimes a very sad understanding, but some more....patience, I guess, for them. That quote stuck with me as well. I also liked what her father said about her mother's view of truth -- that she isn't really lying because she has convinced even herself of what she is saying (or something like that). As I was reading the book, I felt at times this was a terribly hard thing for her to write about and that made her guarded about it which resulted in it being difficult to follow. (Was that last sentence difficult to follow? ). Understandable -- it would be hard to find some peace about this on a personal level and then to write about it and communicate it coherently even harder. After all, judging by the dates in the book and the publication date, she was writing this shortly after it happened (recent events, anyway).

It's just a pet peeve of mine when events and timelines don't line up. I wish I could get over it but I haven't so far.

Several months ago, the author was speaking at a bookstore very close to my house. I wish I had been able to read the book beforehand and attend.