Helpful Score: 2
A painful story of a childhood of abuse - but told through the matter-of-fact eyes of the child, to whom "playing grown-ups" sexually or enduring horrific beatings is seemingly no more important than playing dressup with her sisters or running the fields with the pet deer. Meg Tilly has a wonderful voice.
Helpful Score: 1
Wow - what a candid look through the eyes of Anna, a little girl living with her large family. On the run from CPS and clinging to whatever man she could find, Anna's mother is a tragic figure. She allows the children to be raped by their stepfather, sleep in a barn and eat only when the adults are finished. Definitely worth the read of Tilly, a favorite and famous actress.
Good book, about some difficult subject matter. But well written.
Please refer to my review on Meg Tilly's book "Gemma". "Singing Songs" was written in 1994 but is on the same subject (sexual abuse of a young girl) as "Gemma". I am now convinced that all children need to taught that abuse isn't necessarily done by strangers and they are not the one that is at fault. They need to have someone they can trust and turn to if someone is taking advantage of them. There are ways I never dreamed of that perverts can take advantage of our children and it is up to us to keep them save. I applaud Ms. Tilly for writing both of these books and I am glad that the Houston Chronicle wrote an article on "Gemma" or I would never have read either of them.
Singing Songs is the masterful realization of a young girl's journey to adulthood in a chaotic, abusive and fragmented world: an affirmation of a child's ability to use her judgement and imagination alone to light her way. It is the story of a strange and beautiful metamorphosis and a profound statement about the dark and secret places of family life....
Meg Tilly was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the title role in "Agnes of God", for which she won the Golden Globe Award. She is known for her work in "The Big Chill" and continues to act in feature film and on television.
Meg Tilly was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the title role in "Agnes of God", for which she won the Golden Globe Award. She is known for her work in "The Big Chill" and continues to act in feature film and on television.
The author helps you to see how things are in the mind of a child as they experience different things in life. Their perception is dictated by what the way the adults in their life tell them it means, and also by just having the mind of a child. This is a very strong little girl. I enjoyed the book and wanted to hold this little girl and just take her out of this horrible life she was stuck in.
From the back:
Shaped by Meg Tilly's exacting cinematic sensibility, Singing Songs explores how one family lives, centerless, caught in a flux of emotion and vilence that touches and transforms each of its members. Nomadic and insular, Anna's family follows the shifting sands of temporary employment, fleeing from social workers, schools, and nearly all the conventions of society. Anna pretends fiercely, imagines grandly, and gradually, with all the force of innocence and a fierce loyalty to herself, seizes pieces of the world as her own. Singing Songs is the masterful realization fo a young girl's journey to adulthood in a chaotic, abusive and fragmented world. It is the story fo a strange and beautiful metamorphosis and a profound statement about the dark and secret places of family life.
Shaped by Meg Tilly's exacting cinematic sensibility, Singing Songs explores how one family lives, centerless, caught in a flux of emotion and vilence that touches and transforms each of its members. Nomadic and insular, Anna's family follows the shifting sands of temporary employment, fleeing from social workers, schools, and nearly all the conventions of society. Anna pretends fiercely, imagines grandly, and gradually, with all the force of innocence and a fierce loyalty to herself, seizes pieces of the world as her own. Singing Songs is the masterful realization fo a young girl's journey to adulthood in a chaotic, abusive and fragmented world. It is the story fo a strange and beautiful metamorphosis and a profound statement about the dark and secret places of family life.
bittersweet novel by actress meg tilly - no parents are perfect but hers are really a mess - honest heartbreaking - another sexually abused child manages to live through it all
