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3.0

I really enjoyed this book about a mom raising 10 children in the contest era which I knew absolutely nothing about.

It's an interesting memoir as the mom is confined to her role as 50s housewife with a shotgun wedding to hide a pregnancy and an alcoholic father who basically contributes nothing, oh and takes out a second mortgage and drinks it away without telling anyone. What the hell? Anyways, I thought it brought up a lot of interesting questions about feminism and subversion of gender roles. It also will read as a culture shock to even the most midwestern Ohio people today. These contests are so ridiculous. The poems are shockingly terrible.

So overall, I would have liked to know more about the mom's true motivations and thoughts but it seems that her character was to be elusive about her own worries and thoughts.