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| Plot Summary of What's a Birthday, Mama? |
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"Little Peggy's childhood, mired in the squalor of a small town in the 1940's, is dominated by her father, a volatile, abusive alcoholic who seems to relish beating both her and her mother when sparked by drunken rages. Driven by an inner sense of motherly responsibility for her equally neglected brothers, she is forced to steal or forage for food in garbage dumps, and while she yearns for a sister, ironically it would be one more mouth to feed. Soon she realizes that her mother is constantly becoming pregnant and either aborting or killing the newborns, which she demands that Peggy bury. Discovering a girl baby, the spirited young girl seizes it, thereby saving her sister's life.
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Pegi Handley, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of What's a Birthday, Mama? |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Kids growing up/acting up?
Yes
Kids:
- trouble in high school
- trouble in grade school
- parental abuse
Family, hate
Yes
Struggle with:
- Father
- Mother
The difficult family member
- disapproves of life choices
- is mentally ill
Period of greatest activity?
- 1900+
Subject of Biography
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- homemaker
Age:
- 60's-90's
Eccentric:
- emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity
- White
Nationality
- American (!)
How sensitive is this person?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 7 (a good amount)
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
Mountains/Cliffs
Yes
Mountains:
- climbing on trails
Forest?
Yes
Misc setting
- prison
Century:
- 1930's-1950's
Style
Person
- mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death?
- explicit references to deaths
Book makes you feel?
- angry
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript. of nude males (the big P)
- rape/molest (yeech!)
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of hetero sex
- main character services as prostitute
Unusual Style:
- a lot of flashback and forwards
Writer's slant towards subject:
- favorable
Story of entire life, or part?
- story of nearly entire life
Autobiography?
Yes
Pictures/Illustrations?
- More 6-10 B&W
How much dialogue in bio?
- significantly more descript than dialog
How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life?
- 26-50% of book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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