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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Powerful and gripping, The Taste of Anger is like a car wreck you can’t look away from. The narrative opens with a tension that doesn’t subside until the very last paragraph. This is a distinct and original work that refreshingly offers a straight narrative without excuse or analysis.”
—The BookLife Prize
“This is a memoir with a brilliant narrative, studded with a host of images that will remain with me for a long time. . . . there is the indomitableness of the spirit.”
—Clem Cairns, founder of Fish Publishing
—The BookLife Prize
“This is a memoir with a brilliant narrative, studded with a host of images that will remain with me for a long time. . . . there is the indomitableness of the spirit.”
—Clem Cairns, founder of Fish Publishing
About the Author
Diane Vonglis Parnell grew up on a remote farm in Western New York with nine siblings. Her essay Blame the Milkman was a winner in the Fish Publishing short memoir contest, and included in the Fish Anthology 2022. Vonglis Parnell is a Scrabble enthusiast and a lover of progressive rock music. She serves as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer for abused children in her community and lives a minimalist’s life in a 200-square-foot cottage in San Luis Obispo, California.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Harrowing Memoir of Survival and Resilience*
This gripping memoir recounts the heart-wrenching story of a child growing up in a small upstate New York town, where physical and psychological abuse were a constant, inescapable reality. From the first page, the author pulls you into their world—a world of fear, confusion, and unrelenting pain, where every day becomes a struggle not only to survive but to maintain a sense of self.What sets this book apart from other memoirs of trauma is the author’s raw, unflinching honesty. There are no attempts to soften the brutal experiences endured at the hands of those who were meant to protect. Each chapter unfolds like a punch to the gut, and yet, there’s an undeniable tenderness in the way the author reflects on their younger self, a child yearning for love and safety in a world that offers none.The psychological abuse described in this memoir is as damaging as the physical, with manipulation and emotional neglect compounding the daily violence. The author's ability to articulate the long-term effects of this trauma—the self-doubt, the internalized shame, and the desperate need for validation—is profoundly moving. Yet, the story is not just one of suffering; it is a testament to resilience and the power of the human spirit.A must-read for anyone who appreciates stories of survival, this book will leave you changed, moved, and filled with awe at the strength of the human soul.
5.0 out of 5 stars In the Soul of a Vicitm
I was captivated by Parnell’s memoir A Taste of Anger, which brought me to understand a victim’s terror. I traveled with her as the Vonglis family moved to a dilapidated upstate New York farm: broken-down equipment, two-seater outhouse, one bedroom for seven children and an insufferable father. The children are worked from sunup to sundown in summers, before and after school during the school year. And Diane only four when she gets a first taste of anger: tick, tick. Her writing is both terse and dramatic. “Lizzy crying. Kathy crying. Mittens on the floor. He bellows, ‘What’s the Rule?’ No mittens on the floor.’”My eyes were full of tears, my heart in my throat, as I read of Diane’s fear at the threat and execution of her father’s steel-tipped boot. And worse. Anyone who wants to understand what living under the tyranny of an abuser is like should read this. As I said, her story is captivating, one you’ll never forget.
5.0 out of 5 stars Equal parts brutal and beautiful
This stunning debut memoir offers the reader a direct and nuanced experience of abuse and its multitude of impacts.The Taste of Anger by Diane Vonglis Parnell vividly recounts the 12 year period from 1962 to 1974 in which she, her nine siblings, and her ever-pregnant mother were trapped on an isolated farm in East Avon, New York under the tyranny of her abusive father.Vonglis Parnell writes in a detailed present-tense, cinematic style that drops the reader into every scene with full impact. It is far different to merely hear stories of abuse than to live it every day, and the magic of this memoir is that we aren’t simply told Diane’s story, we live it with her. When she trudges through the snow, it is our boots that make the “crunch, crunch”. When she gets angry, it is our eyes that show a “fury…like flames, licking the blue right off [our] eyeballs”. And when the world goes into slow-motion before Diane suffers a beating, we see every image and feel every emotion along with her. Never in the memoir does Vonglis Parnell attempt to solicit sympathy for her circumstance, but the result of such honest narration is that we come away with a much more tangible empathy.“Hurt doesn’t get me anywhere. Hurt just hurts. Anger, I decide, is better. Anger is power.”In a genre where many memoirs preach ‘overcoming’ or the power of positive thinking, The Taste of Anger refreshingly renders an altogether different reality: survive, by any means necessary. The way the siblings of 2727 Swamp Road survive isn’t pretty: they bicker and backstab, sling curses and insults, and even gang on up the littler kids to take the blame (and beatings). However, punctuating the rivalry are moments of heartwarming camaraderie: holding hands while watching a blimp fly over, or singing together around the record player when their father isn’t around. Vonglis Parnell masterfully depicts these children of abuse, not as heroic survivors, but in all their flawed humanity. And therein lies the important and unique message for abuse survivors: your anger is valid, your scars never completely disappear. And that’s okay.
5.0 out of 5 stars You'll never forget this book!
Wonderful writing, gripping story, a must-read for teachers, social workers, and all who work with children. Hope the author will write a second volume!
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The Taste of Anger: A Memoir
BHD11165
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Product origin: United States
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