“KooKooLand is a truly original memoir, dealing with some pretty horrific things with deft humor and a big heart. Gloria Norris has a terrific voice, telling her story from the point of view of the smart, brave kid she must have been. With cinematic urgency, Norris conveys the strange truth that love, fear and hate for a father can live side by side, and that’s why violence can endure in families. I raced through this book, heart thumping and breaking simultaneously.
– Julie Salamon, author of The Devil’s Candy and Wendy and the Lost Boys.
“For anyone who might suppose that a New Hampshire childhood was about tapping maple trees and picking apples, here comes the dark side. I could not have dreamed up a family like the one Gloria Norris brings to life on these pages : crazy, funny, terrifying—or a childhood more filled with confusing contradiction. The brilliance of her story is that she somehow survived the violence that might have destroyed her to give us this dazzling funhouse ride of a memoir. When you emerge, you may want to run away fast. Or buy another ticket and go back inside.”
– Joyce Maynard, author of Labor Day and At Home in the World
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