The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls

I am vacillating between 4 or 5 stars for this book, so I will split the difference. Story, characters, and writing are all wonderful, but it isn’t quite at the 5 star level for me. That is not to say that this is not a powerhouse of a little book that more people should be reading.This is a story about an emotionally broken family who need a crisis to bring them together. It is a generational story focusing mostly on female relationships. The crisis is really just the backdrop to the story. Althea Butler, the eldest of the Butler children, is arrested along with her husband Proctor for fraud among other things. She and her husband were pillars in their small Michigan community. The community feels betrayed and their punishment is harsh. Althea and Proctor have two teenage daughters who are left in the care of Althea’s sister Lillian. Lillian has her own issues, both from child and adulthood, but tries her best with the girls. Viola lives in Chicago and is avoiding the family in order to hide her recurring eating disorder and the break-up of her marriage. Only brother Joe is a Pentecostal minister, following in his father’s footsteps. The Butler children lost their mother when they were young and poorly prepared Althea stepped in to raise them, though she left home as soon as she could.The story is told in alternating chapters by Althea, Lillian, and Viola. Proctor narrates through some letters to Althea. Each family member has their own psychological demons to deal with and they are ill-equipped to help each other. As the story develops, family secrets are revealed. The sisters take some awkward steps toward healing themselves and healing as a family. While hopeful, this is not a story with neat happy endings. Like real life, there are a lot of loose ends and work yet to be done. There is a lot of story packed into a relatively short book (302 pages). As I write this review, I think the piece that was missing for me was additional character development. Lillian and Viola were the most fleshed-out characters. I find that I am still puzzling over all of the motives behind Althea’s crimes. The author has had a long career in print and television news. This is her first novel and she certainly writes like a seasoned novelist rather than a journalist. This is a strong start for a debut novel and I will be interested to read what Ms. Gray writes next.

As I have stated so many times in the past, and I doubt this will be the last time, I believe that each reader’s experience of a book is colored by their own background, personality and relationships; this is what makes reading such an individual pursuit, but also makes for meaningful discussion and offers the opportunity to broaden our perspective.The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls impacted me on a very personal level; I have experience with both incarceration and disordered eating (and I will note that individuals for whom these are difficult topics should be aware of their presence within this novel), so I felt very connected to several of the characters within this book."I always promised myself I’d never be one fo those crisis Christians, running to God or Jesus or whoever in times of trouble. But here I am. In trouble. In crisis. Sitting up here in jail Bible study."While the story is centered around married couple Althea and Proctor, who are sentenced to incarceration in federal prison after defrauding their community through charity events, it includes Althea’s two sisters and brother as well as Althea and Proctor’s two daughters. What makes the story remarkable is that each of these family members are hurting, all stricken with wounds that continue to reopen with each new development they are forced to endure. As I was once told, hurting people hurt people; that statement proves true in this novel.In addition, each have found their own methods of coping with their pain; as one might guess, they are not healthy mechanisms and present their own set of problems that affect they way in which they interact with one another. Before you reject this one in despair, the beauty is found in Gray’s ability to built such rich, complex characters, full of so much compassion and descriptive emotion that I found myself irreversibly connected to their stories."Women like me pay attention to very thin girls like her who leave full or overly messy or manipulated plates. I’ve been watching Baby Vi for some time - claiming to prefer plain tea; rearranging food, but not eating it; pleading ‘I’m not hungry’ when she should be - and I don’t like what I’m seeing."I have read comparisons of this one to both The Mothers and An American Marriage, but I don’t find those to be appropriate; if anything, thanks to the intense family element and difficult circumstances, I might compare this to A Place for Us. Nevertheless, I have a feeling this will be one of my favorite books of the year and, while my experience is certainly colored by my own story, I highly recommend giving this one a try.

Story about a family of four siblings, focusing on the three daughters/sisters. Their childhoods were cut short in different ways due to the death of their mother. The oldest daughter is forced into caring for her younger siblings, even after until she marries at age 18. The book behind after this pillar of strength eldest daughter and her husband are incarcerated for fraud of charity monies. Her younger sisters are left to raise her daughters, one of whom was instrumental in the arrest and conviction of her parents.I like that the story was told with realism and professionally written. I would have liked to have known the incarcerated couple before they were caught at their crime. That part was told as backstory. I also found the writing style to be more a reporting of the story, rather than told as a tale. A little more prose would have been nice.Character development was great. Author had birth order character traits down pat. I would definitely read something else by this author.

I felt the story overall was pretty boring. The actual crime that the parents commit in the story is really interesting, but it doesn't really get explored. The book deals with the fallout for the characters surrounding the parents who commit the crime. It's a family story where everyone has their own issues, but the ending for me was the worst. It was just this inconceivable coincidence that saves everyone in the book and I didn't buy it. This book has it's good moments. For example I felt the relationship between the grandmother and the daughter in law was fantastically done and showed how much you can care for someone who isn't blood family. Actually, the grandmother's story was really interesting and I wish it had been explored further.

Great read, character development is rich.

Such a great story.