About book Overlay: A Tale Of One Girl's Life In 1970s Las Vegas (2012)
Probably 3.5 stars.I checked this book out through my Amazon Prime membership. I never quite know which books to pick as my monthly free read, but I like memoirs, so that's usually where I start. I picked this one because I've always wondered what living in Las Vegas is really like. I've been three times, once as a child, once right out of college and once in my early 30's. I'm not much of a gambler (I've never spent more than $20 gambling), so I people watch. One thing I noticed is that once you look beyond the surface, Vegas is really a sad sort of town. Brown's book confirmed this. Since Brown is only about a decade older than me, I thought it would be interesting to read a memoir of someone who might have some shared childhood experiences with me. Thankfully, aside from the fact that both of us had Barbies, Lightbrights and lived in apartments, our childhoods were nothing alike. Well, not nothing alike. I did know something of the poverty Brown spoke of, but my childhood was more like the days with her mom in the first apartment, when her mom was working. Poor, but never on the lowest rung of the ladder. We may have lived in some slightly questionable neighborhoods, but I was never afraid and I had a stay at home mom, so I always had a place to run to. This memoir is not for the faint of heart. Not so much because the violence depicted is so graphic, although the pictures she paints with her words are vivid and disturbing, but rather because so much hurt and cruelty was perpetrated on innocent children. Not just Brown herself, but a great many of the children in her neighborhoods who shared her life on the lower rungs. This book reminds readers that poverty is real and that it is not merely "lazy wellfare cheats" who suffer (I don't buy into that stereotype at all, but a great portion of this country does). There are millions of victims no one thinks about: children. The increased levels of abuse (physical, psychological and sexual) among those in poverty is appalling. So is the lack of access to health care and proper education. Children, like Brown, who live on the fringes are so often swallowed up and devoured by predatory adults. As a mother, this was a very hard book to read simply because I cannot fathom any parent not loving their child. There is nothing I would not give up for my children's well-being and to read about the neglect, negligence and downright horrific treatment she endured at the hands of those who were supposed to love, shelter and teach her, well, it was hard. Brown does her best not to paint her parents as monsters who destroyed her. By the end of the book, she takes responsibility (although too much in my opinion), for destructive decisions she made. She shows how alcohol and addiction slowly rot people from inside. She shows how what can appear to be contentment, can just be a method to cope with a deep depression. What amazes me in this book is how many adults simply get away with hurting children. I don't know if it was just the time period or the fact that Brown and her peers were poor, but the thought of that much child abuse and rape going unreported...well, it sickens me. This book is an interesting read. The reason I hold out from giving this book 4 stars is that Brown tries too hard with the gambling connections. Each chapter starts with a gambling term and definition. Each chapter is loosely tied to that term (sometimes so loosely I missed the connection). I get why she did it. The book is about growing up in Las Vegas, the gambling capitol of the US. A good portion of her life seemed to hang in the balance and be left up to chance. But still, it is really overdone and seems forced at times. This memoir was written by the child of two alcoholics. It is, very sadly, the portrait of a childhood similar to that of many youngsters living in 1970's Las Vegas, which was then a center of poverty and child neglect in this country. Part of a trilogy, it describes the author's life of neglect and abuse from ages 7-14. Heartbreaking, of course, and very disturbing, it also serves as somewhat of a testament to the human spirit as we see this young girl grasp for and find ways to survive a world filled with ugliness ,emptiness, hopelessness, hunger and fear brought on by drug addicted, hard drinking, totally useless and even predatory adults. Although this volume ends before the author is, herself, an adult, I've read that she wound up with three college degrees, a successful career and a loving family. Remarkable.
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I loved it and was saddened at the same time. Definetely made me want to start reading the sequel.
—lishysweet
