ISBN #: 978-1475200355
Page Count: 328
Copyright: April 18, 2012
Publisher: CreateSpace
Description:
(Taken from back cover)
What is it that makes one person's life interesting to another? Could it be the reader's perceived shared experiences with the writer? A profound thankfulness for not having shared such experiences? A desire to know about a life not personally lived? A well-crafted, mesmerizing and professionally written read? A story that evokes reader emotion - whether it be relief, anger, fear, sadness or joy? A desire to see a situation through to the end? Our shared universal desire for entropy, balance peace and happy endings?
Author Marlayna Glynn Brown has crafted an extraordinary tale of survival and resilience in spare and convincing prose. Written from a child's point of view from ages 4 to 17, this tale describes the precarious childhood of Marlayna in 1970s Las Vegas.
The desert perimeter serves as a hot, dry and dangerous barrier that shuts out the rest of the vibrant world and bleaches away any sense of the joy that colors childhoods. Born into an ongoing cycle of alcoholism, addiction and abandonment amidst fallen adults, Marlayna develops a powerful sense of self-preservation in contrast to the people entrusted with her care. Her story explores the personalities of the bizarre characters who populate her life as she moves from home to home, parent to parent, family to family and ultimately to homelessness at the age of fourteen. Out of the resources of her remarkable childhood emerges an inner strength that will charm and captivate readers and remain in their consciousness long after the last page of her story has been turned.
Charlene's Review:
Overlay is a hauntingly sad look at what transpires in the wake of alcoholic parents. Written in the voice of Marlayna, as she grows up in the shadow of alcoholism, poverty, and abject loneliness, this memoir is simply admirable. To have lived it is shocking enough, but to find a voice and speak out, is phenomenal. Marlayna has a survivor's spirit, and writes effortlessly, while portraying a life many of us could never imagine.
*A paperback copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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Hi, I found your website through booksneeze, I'm also a booksneeze blogger. My husband recently published "His Given Breath" a short eBook of inspirational (slightly modern) poetry. If this is something you might be interested in reviewing e-mail me at lessonsfromivy at gmail dot com.
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