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This is a sequel to the Blackbird story by Jennifer Lauck. It depicts her struggles once she is freed from her terrible step mother and enters when she meets her grandparents. Lauck then lives with an aunt and uncle who treat her as second class. I cried and cheered for Lauck throughout the story and you will too.
I thought "Still Waters" was boring and self-indulgent. Maybe it would have helped to have first read "Blackbird", but I didn't and had a hard time finding sympathy for the main character. Reading this was a waste of time.
Upon finally going to college and freeing herself from her `family' she begins to carve out a new life for herself, eventually finding the courage to face her past and her brother's death.Again a deeply sad story and although one can sense the anger in this memoir one is also rewarded with the knowledge that Jennifer Lauck has found some measure of peace and happiness in her life. Peggy and Dick Duemore eventually adopt Jennifer, but she is valued more for her Social Security check and housekeeping skills than anything else.
Unfortunately it was not to be. This book opens with the police report chronicling Bryan's suicide.
At the end of Blackbird, Jennifer Lauk's first memoir, 12 year old Jennifer's wicked stepmother (literally) finally relinquishes custody of her and her brother Bryan and we are left to believe she is finally safe. She soon learns it is temporary and that her brother is living with one aunt and uncle, and she is going to live with another.
We know then that maybe there is no happy ever after. Jennifer is first cared for by her grandparents, slowly settling in.
She stumbles through her life unloved and barely cared for. She has a wonderful writing style and voice that makes you care deeply about her.
Yet inexplicably that relative sends her off to live with someone else and no real explanation is given. This book is a sequel to the author's first autobiography, 'Blackbird: A Childhood Lost And Found.' 'Still Waters' affected me even more strongly than the first book, because it more closely mirrored my own childhood and young adulthood. Despite being shuffled around like a deck of cheap cards, Lauck found the inner strength to grow up intact, and this book affirms the incredible resiliency of children to thrive even under less than ideal circumstances. There are millions of kids who are not foster children but what I call shuffled kids, sent from one relative to the next, from one family friend to the next, and back again. At one point in the book, Lauck writes about staying a few days at a relative's house, where there are no other children, and she is comfortable and happy, and there's more than enough room for her to live there without being in the way. This is also a disgraceful and shameful retelling of what happens when relatives turn their back on children who are blood relatives and allow them to be raised by strangers. It is truly a gift and a miracle that Lauck made it to adulthood without becoming a criminal or a drug addict, because her family certainly didn't provide the guidance and nurturing that every child deserves.
Saying this is a memoir about a dysfunctional family does not do this book justice. All I can say is, Wow. So right after I finished it I bought Still Waters. Her books opened my mind and my heart. I really appreciated the fluidity with which Jennifer Lauck wrote her sequel. I read it in about 2 days.A lot happens in her life.
And for those of us who have read the first book, it's a bore to read about all this re-hashing. I picked up Lauck's first book, "Blackbird" at the library and loved it. Yes, her family is dysfunctional, but her attitude and experiences and how she draws these into her world view, are all woven through her book in a way that I wanted it to never end.Another thing, many sequels re-hash much of what happened in the first book. A lot happens in many of our lives. But the way Lauck sees things that go on in her life and in the world, are special. "Still Waters" does not do this.
I look forward to more from this gifted writer.
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