Book description
'I learned about conflict from my parents.' So begins Christina
McKenna's haunting memoir of her lonely early life. Recounting scenes
from her chlldhood in Ulster, she paints a memorable and poignant
picture of violence and oppression with her brutal father and
protective mother, whose retalliation to her husband's meaness came in
the form of a secret yellow dress.
At age eleven, she experiences a frightening supernatural
occurrence, a prolonged haunting that confirms for her the reality of
the spirit world. Though it affects her deeply, she later learns to
channel her confusion into twin artistic passions: poetry and
painting.
The discordant nature of Christina McKenna's young life, and the
feelings of inferiority it bred, lead her to examine all the limiting
belief systems she grew up with, and question the validity of the
hidebound Catholicism of her childhood.
This is a rite-of-passage account of two generations of Irish
women, told with great humour and compassion. On the one hand is the
writer; on the other the heroic mother who showed her love as best she
could.
McKenna concludes that our past, no matter how painful, need not
keep us bound -- once we choose love over hate. That choice, she
suggests, will set us free.
A brilliantly evocative memoir ... beautifully written ... with
humour and sorrow. Belfast Telegraph Christina McKenna was born in
Ireland in 1957. She attended the Belfast College of Art and the
University of Ulster and went on to teach in Spain, Turkey, Italy,
Mexico and her native Ulster. She continues to paint and has exhibited
her work around the world.
