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Mary-Ann Tirone Smith
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Book
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Publisher | Allison & Busby | ||
ISBN | 978074908093 | ||
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Reviewer
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Ann
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Synopsis
Mary-Ann Tirone Smith grew up in small town America during the 1950s. In many ways it was a typical rough-and-tumble childhood, but a killer would change Mary-Ann's life and that of her home town forever. Mary-Ann comes from an extended French-Italian family - her mother, always on the verge of a nervous breakdown; her adoring father, the cornerstone of her childhood; and her numerous uncles, aunts and cousins, who parade through her life with love, food and endless stories of the old days. And then there's Tyler, her autistic brother, a Boo Radley to her Scout. Hanging over this world is the shadow of Bob Malm, who lurks throughout Mary-Ann's joyous and chaotic family portrait, until one night when the havoc he causes irrecoverably alters her world. "Girls of Tender Age" is one of those rare books that for ever changes its readers because of its beauty, its power and the harrowing crime at its heart.
Review
In 1950's America, in a small self-contained multi-national immigrant community, a girl of tender age, Irene, was murdered. In school, at home and in the community the murder was thereafter never mentioned. This true account is narrated from the viewpoint of the author, a class mate of the murdered girl. Now an adult, Mary-Ann relives her childhood with her generous, capable and caring father, intelligent and fragile mother, and her autistic special needs savant elder brother, Tyler.
The book, although in three parts, falls into two halves - her recollections of childhood, including the numerous and usually somewhat eccentric relatives and neighbours, and the methods the family arrive at to cope with Tyler's obsessive and compulsive behavioural needs. The unquestioning acceptance of children in unusual circumstances is depicted with love and humour, in even, innocent language.
Mary-Ann, having become a published writer, comes to realise that she has to address the suppressed memory of that time, and the second half of the book, written in an easy, yet compelling style, sets out to fill in the gaps and pay due respect to the murdered girl who has been erased from memory.
This is an unusual, charming and thought-provoking book, highly recommended.
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