This short story is part of this collection Title: The Orphan Hunger. That’s what I remember the most about my childhood and adolescence. This unfulfilled hunger for food, love, a family, real understanding has created this emptiness inside me. I know I exist but I am a vacant room. I am a house without furniture nor decoration, an abandoned cabin in the woods. That sounds less cruel than what people used to call me at school. I still remember. It’s a fact that will never cease to be true. They never called my name. They always said the orphan , when addressing to me. There were other nicknames for others: the fat, the four-eyed, the skinny, the nerd, the snitch, the ass-licker. However, these all were things caused by the same people. The fat one ate too much, the skinny too little; the four-eyed kid mentioned he used to watch TV too closely to the screen, the nerd studied a lot to keep his reputation, the snitch always told on people as well as the ass-licker. But what had I do...
" I have no accomplishment [...] I was as much of a nothing as Mommy or Grandma Edith [...] People around town talk about how I wrecked it all [...] So all I have is the knowledge that I saw! That I saw without being afraid and without turning away, and that I didn't forgive the unforgivable. Forgiveness is a reflex for when you can't stand what you know. I resisted that reflex. That's my sole, solitary, lonely accomplishment. " I chose this quote because I think it encapsulates many of the topics of this incredible work of art. This novel is all about the meaning of family when it's toxic, generational cruelty, traditions impossibly to maintain without sacrificing a great part of oneself, forgiveness and cruelty, and the insidious power of the unsaid. I just read this novel for the second time around and I think I'm ready now to talk about this masterpiece. PLOT The novel starts describing the farm in Zebulon County that belongs to the Cook family, and ho...