Betty – Tiffany McDaniel
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: [from the dustjacket] A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians in which a young girl discovers stark truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
Expectation: The female “A Little Life.”
Reality: The most depressing book I’ve ever read, yet there was something still beautiful about its pain and misery.
Recommended For: People that like character driven stories, especially those about Americana.
Why I Read It: I’ve long been interested in Appalachia, and when one reviewer compared it to “A Little Life,” one of my all-time favorite reads, I knew I couldn’t pass it up.
My Take:
Betty Carpenter, the title character in “Betty” that we follow from birth to her early teens, is curious, creative and optimistic. She’s the glue that holds her family together, and her imagination brings joy to those when they need it most.
I wish she could’ve starred in a different story, because hers is filled with almost every trigger warning needed for a piece of literature, making “Betty” one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read.
The cards are stacked against her family from day one, when the chance meeting of her white mother and Cherokee father in a cemetery that leads to an unexpected pregnancy. So begins a journey of racism, child abuse, sexual abuse, miscarriages, abortion, suicide, incest, homophobia, rape and murder that the Carpenter family must deal with in order to survive.
Each chapter unveils another tragedy — many shrouded in family secrets — that began to weigh on me to the point I was ready to call it quits about 40 percent of the way through.
This surprised me as I don’t have a problem with challenging content. “A Little Life” is one of my all-time favorite reads, and that story is full of terrible situations. However, there’s also an undercurrent of hope and fidelity that runs through “A Little Life,” and that’s missing in much of “Betty.”
Even though Tiffany McDaniel has no problem bringing the reader along for every depressing, gory and devastating detail, her writing is so gorgeously poetic it leaves you hanging on every word. It’s what propelled me to keep going — along with hope that Betty would find a better life.
This novel featured some of the most vivid and horrendous descriptions of animal abuse and rape I’ve ever read, so I can’t say this is a book I’d ever recommend. However, the relationship between Betty and her father, Landon, was the best part of the story.
The way he relished being a father and tried to shelter Betty and her siblings from the cruelty of the world was heartbreaking and honorable. He helped Betty learn how to appreciate nature, standup for herself and channel pain into writing — a skill that eventually helped her escape the small Appalachian town that never accepted her.
Her mother…that’s a complicated and difficult story. The same goes for several of her siblings. The fact that McDaniel drew inspiration from her own family adds another layer of sadness that makes me hope much of what is presented here didn’t happen to flesh and bone people.
As an audiobook, it is top-notch. Narrated by Dale Dickey, an actress with Appalachian roots, she came to embody the characters and injected a level of emotion that fit the narrative perfectly.
If you’re interested in stories about Appalachia in the 1960s and 1970s and can stomach almost every horrible thing that can happen to a person, then “Betty” might be for you. But, honestly, I couldn’t wait for it to end.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 5/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: November 21 – 29, 2020
Multi-tasking: Okay, but you’ll miss elements of the story.
