A Product of a Pimp and a Prostitute, by Charles Lisa
My review: ★★★★
This book grabbed me right from the start. It was written as a letter from the author to her estranged mother, and then published as a memoir. It’s long for a letter, but a fairly quick read for a book.
The author was raised by her grandmother because her mother was never present. A prostitute going in and out of jail, the author’s mother was self-absorbed, demanding, lying and stealing from her own family. The author shares a lot of the details of her life and how her mother’s behavior hurt her. At the end, the book pivots to a short treatise on forgiveness, both of self and others.
Since this was principally a letter to her mother, and her mother had – shall we say – quite a few transgressions to be forgiven for – there are places where the book gets a little long. If it were written for an audience, there’d be some parts to simplify. It’s a little un-polished. But this was a heartfelt expression of feelings that needed to be explained in full.
The readers who might appreciate this book most may be:
- People who have their own difficult family members and are trying to find forgiveness in their hearts.
- People who have deeply hurt others and are looking either to self-forgive or to ask others for forgiveness.
- People who are interested in learning more about what it’s like to live in a situation such as the author’s.
