Hungry Hill

Carole O'Malley Gaunt

1/26/2008

Hungry Hill is the name of an Irish neighborhood in Springfield, Massachusetts. It is the neighborhood where Carole O'Malley and her seven brothers grew up. In 1959, when Carole was 13, her mother died of cancer. Her father never got over his wife's death. The children became reliant on themselves.

Joe O'Malley is an alcoholic. Although his children are important to him, he keeps a wall between himself and them. They have the material goods they need. Carole is the second oldest and the only girl. Because of that, she does more of the nurturing needed. The children all attend Catholic schools. She can't discuss the large shadow in her life - the death of her mother. That is a taboo topic in her family and neighborhood, as if she and her family did something wrong.

Joe cannot communicate with his family. When he decides he needs to remarry, he has the family doctor tell Carole when she is in for an appointment. His new wife doesn't take on a mothering role. Instead she parties and drinks with Joe and often sees Carole as her competition for his attention. Carole tries to get her brothers to help her in a campaign to get Joe to stop drinking. She believes he will drink himself to death.

Hungry Hill is Carole O'Malley Gaunt's memoir of the years after her mother died until she graduated from high school in 1963. It is a quiet book - there are few flashy or nasty scenes. Nothing obviously horrific happened to the O'Malleys. Instead, Joe drinks himself beyond help and the children have to fend for themselves. Carole has friends and interests in school, but lives two lives. Her personal life cannot be shared with her friends. In that neighborhood in the early 1960's dark topics such as death and loneliness are avoided. Alcoholism is tolerated, even when frowned upon.

Hungry Hill is a good picture of that time in that culture and times in American history. Gaunt's memoirs are straightforward as she relives her life. She spoke with her brothers and friends to make sure she has her facts, but it is her story. The writing is good but not compelling. I never wanted to put the book down and walk away, nor did I feel like I had to get right back to it. It doesn't make me feel the horror of her life (unlike The Glass Castle) but instead is more of a documentary. It is a telling snapshot of a family living with alcoholism.

Hungry Hill is available at .

Provided for review