Marie (myself) finds herself at forty-three years old unable to stay away from Arnold, a boyfriend who rages at her while driving with a green-handled hammer on the seat of his truck. She discovers all her relationships have been neurotic attachments and sets out to heal the wound within where a connection with her dad, who molested her, should have been. But several mysteries need to be solved. They ultimately involve blacksmithing, a semi-truck and a dolly with a purple gown. One reader said, “Buckle up for the twist at the end, and get out the tissue.”
LION TAMER MEMOIR II: How It All Began opens on a crowded dinner table scene in Seattle, 1955. The reader is swept into the mind and heart of Marie, the sixth of ten children, an enterprising, anxious child who finds herself on her own to grow in deepening love through childhood challenges: a dad who roars and belittles her mom, who begins travelling for months at a time and has roving hands when he does come home; a mom who disappears first into the newspaper and later into causes; a war on TV every night; Marie’s obsessive love for strangers; the relief addiction provides; and the power of self-harm. What Marie really needs and finds is freedom. But at what cost?
This is exactly what I needed. Thanks God. You’ve been with me giving me peace through everything, every hurt, sorrow, roadblock, frustration. Now I see the