Fierce: A Memoir (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "You ought to join the military, Southpaw," my dad said..." (more)
Key Phrases: dad shot, Doris Ann, Des Moines, Iowa City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Moss does what you'd expect from a visual artist: she paints pictures with her words. As with her first memoir, Change Me into Zeus's Daughter, she uses the painful stuff of her life—an alcoholic father; numerous abusive husbands; continual, exhausting poverty—and turns it into chilling, visceral imagery. Recalling a day in her tumultuous childhood when her father shot the family pony in a rage, she writes, "Then I saw it, clear as a bell—the tractor dragging the dead pony through the freshly plowed soybean field behind our house. The wet, red mud guttered on either side of the pony like a wake left by a boat." She mercilessly braids the gruesome beauty of images like this with a hopeful message: survive. But beyond surviving, Moss creates. She holds fast to her dream of becoming a visual artist, no matter how impractical a notion it is for a woman from a working-class background. Even more moving, she doesn't become an artist—or a writer for that matter—who transcends and leaves her beginnings behind; she carries them with her, puts them on canvas and paper and exhibits them for the world to see. Admittedly, there are times when the rhythm feels a bit off, but even Moss's lack of pacing feels like part of the erratic whirlwind that is her life.
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From Booklist

In this follow-up to her highly regarded childhood memoir, Change Me into Zeus's Daughter (2000), artist and author Moss traces her determined footsteps from her rural Alabama home to Sarasota with her 8-year-old son, Jason, in tow. Leaving her abusive second husband, she finally follows her dream, at age 27, to attend art school, paying the bills with an evening job in the school's photo lab with Jason nearby in his sleeping bag. Her next destination is graduate school in Des Moines, chosen both because of a scholarship and because it was farthest away from yet another violent man who stalks her every move. Interspersed throughout Moss' engaging narrative are details of her frequent trips home, where she grew up with eight siblings, a nurturing mother, and an alcoholic father. Embellished with details of her brother's alcoholism, her father's suicide, her destructive relationship with a schizophrenic artist, the second-class treatment she received because of her welfare status, and her mother's faith and encouragement, Moss' struggle ultimately yields uplifting testimony to tenacity and familial love. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (September 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743229452
• ISBN-13: 978-0743229456
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #208,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story of a life, January 9, 2005

By	O. Brown "Ms. O. Khannah-Brown" (Twopeas, WA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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*****
This book is the memoir sequel to "Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter". Although it could easily be read alone, I found it was an incredible experience to read it after reading the earlier memoir. Knowing the background of the author's childhood from the first book adds richness to the already rich second memoir "Fierce".

Although both books describe very difficult life experiences, they are far from depressing; they are about the triumph of love and the human spirit. I cannot imagine anyone having had a more troubled or abusive childhood than did the author, but the central theme of family love is what ,most affects the family members and holds them together above all.

I read this book as slowly as I could to make it last. It was just so good. I can't imagine anyone buying it and thinking they didn't get more than their money's worth, as it delivers on all levels---style of writing, suspense and plot, authenticity and transparency, the ability to draw you into the author's world.

"Fierce" takes place mostly after the author is an adult and leaves home although there are many flashbacks to childhood. "Change Me Into Zeus' Daughter" is about the author's childhood. I would buy both books together in hardback and save them forever to be read again and again.

*****

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Riveting follow-up to 'Zeus's Daughter', March 10, 2005

By	Jody Ewing (Western Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When I first read "Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter," I immediately wanted more from memoirist Barbara Robinette Moss. In her follow-up "Fierce," she does not disappoint.

"Fierce" is Barbara's story of leaving all she knew behind to pursue her dream of becoming an artist. Every step of the way, childhood demons haunt her: her charismatic and alcoholic father, staggering poverty and abuse, broken dreams and rural indigence. Men with whom she has close relationships fight demons of their own, Patrick with schizophrenia and brother Stewart with alcoholism. Her childhood memories wake her at night, but Barbara never loses focus of what is most important - her only son Jason and a better life for both of them.

As with "Zeus's Daughter," the author successfully sets the psychology of time and place. We can see the pony tangled in barbwire and the father's shot at close range. We are there when Stewart wrestles with an angel, and we rejoice when Barbara, like Einstein the cat, defies the pull of gravity.

"Fierce" - simply put - is unforgettable. Barbara's story not only inspires, it is a life-affirming testament to the human spirit.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Roadmap for Transcendence, October 14, 2004

By	Charles Langton "Charlie Langton" (Decorah, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The details in Barbara Moss's books may be particularly hers, but the story she tells really belongs to all of us: For none of us escapes suffering and, with remarkable skill, Moss's writing gives eloquent voice to our suffering as well as hers, and then (this is the real accomplishment!) shows us what it means to persist, prevail, and finally transcend it.