Assessment:

Idea: In Alabama Blue, Toni Pacini recollects her abusive childhood and the violence she endured and survived, as well as the psychological and emotional scarring that led her to make sometimes catastrophic choices as an adult. It also depicts one of the most touching stories of a human being rescued from the depths of an emotional abyss by the pure, uncomplicated adoration of a canine soulmate in recent memory.

Prose/Style: The events in Pacini's story are often horrifying and deeply sad; however, her gaze is unflinching, and she has a knack for crafting idiosyncratic dialogue and the unexpected turn of phrase that can inject a note of wry humor at any moment. She has a story worth telling, and she tells it well.

Originality: Like Mary Karr and several other recent memoirists, Pacini survived a childhood blasted by parental alcoholism and mental illness, as well as horrific sexual abuse by a predatory acquaintance. Her book shows her journey from wounded child to becoming an adult who is able to reflect on her life and take pride in having become a woman who can love, live and forgive.

Character Development/Execution: It took courage to write a book this graphic in its depiction of the ugliness of life under the reign of a desperately sick, mentally ill alcoholic parent. It took still more to depict the missteps a child raised in such a home inevitably makes as an adult, and to take responsibility for them and for her own healing. That the child Pacini describes grew up desperate to be loved is not surprising; that she became a woman able to give love deeply and wholeheartedly is miraculous.

Date Submitted: January 27, 2021