My Father's Blood

The exploration of personal trauma is often a large part of memoir. Sometimes it functions as a tool for coping or a sort of codex to aid outsiders in understanding where a person came from, and why they feel the way the do. Still, too often when memories are put into words the theme tends to drift towards justification, or worse yet revenge. I have done my best to avoid the pitfalls of self-pity, self-righteousness, and hatred here. If they appear, their inclusion is unintentional. I have also attempted to the best of my ability to present my story, my father’s story, and the story of my place and the people who sprang from it in as honest and accurate a manner as is possible. I have performed many hours of research, interviews and travel to achieve this goal. I like to think that my work is in conversation with authors such as: Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Frank McCourt, Tobias Wolff, Tim O’Brien and Mary Karr, but I make no claim to being on their plane in terms of talent. What I have to present is 82, 884 words that I hope provide you with an overall picture of three generations of men whose line began over five-hundred years ago in the Portuguese Azores and concludes in the little town of Kosciusko, Mississippi. Trauma, abuse, narrow-mindedness, and the multi-generational pitfalls that grow from poverty and bitterness are here, but compassion, understanding and forgiveness have found their place as well.