Book Review: American Daughter

American Daughter

A Memoir of Intergenerational Trauma, a Mother’s Dark Secrets, and a Daughter’s Quest for Redemption

by Stephanie Thornton Plymale with Elissa Wald

 Greenleaf Book Group 

River Grove Books

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  Parenting & Families 

Pub Date 11 Feb 2020

I am reviewing a copy of American Daughter through Greenleaf Book Group/River Grove Books and Netgalley:

Stephanie Thornton Plymale survived a head on collision in a mail truck stolen by her Mother’s boyfriend.  At the age of five she was in the back of a van that was going seventy miles an hour.  She would survive a drunken crash where the vehicle rolled over and though she was twice unscathed physically, the trauma of it all would leave her mute for years at a time.  Later she would experience life threatening burns due to neglect, and she became blind in one eye.  She went from being homeless to feeling isolated in the dependent unit of the State of California , she would be placed in different foster homes one of those foster homes she endured unimaginable abuse.  By the time she was ten the life Stephanie knew was one of criminal neglect chronic hunger, truancy, homelessness, and ongoing sexual violation.  She would later learn that The terror and fear that she experienced as a child she later uncovers are the insidious ripple effects from an appalling crime that occurred in the summer of 1953 in Baltimore, Maryland, a crime that came to be known nation wide.  

Stephanie’s Mother suffered from schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder and was in and out of jail and psych wards throughout her life.  The psych wards were ghastly often doing more harm than good.  Against all odds though Stephanie’s lifelong desire for a sense of home led to her passion for interior design and burgeoning career in the industry.  But time seemed to stop.  But when Stephanie received a call from her mother after a period of estrangement that was enforced by a court order time seemingly stopped.  The call came from her Mother, and told of her terminal illness, leaving Stephanie her sole guardian.

Stephanie that it was critical that she address her longing to seek the truth about her devastating childhood and lost heritage.  She needed answers, and only had a limited amount of time so She began a series of “interviews” with her mother in an attempt to find answers and to get her mother to take personal responsibility for the past.  It was in one of these interviews that her Mother was the victim of a horrific rape that happened in 1953 when she was only eleven years old, a rape that haunted her throughout her life.  Learning of this leads to an unlikely redemption and reconciliation between Mother and daughter.  Despite growing up thinking she was “white trash. “ she learns that was far from the truth, that in fact she came from an aristocrat family.

I give American Daughter five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!