Raising Wrenns - by Mal Wrenn Corbin (Paperback)

About the Book

Comparing the author's family's world and personality traits with those of wrens, this memoir also contains a creative history of Worcester, a former factory town plagued by poverty, addiction, and violence.

Book Synopsis

A little girl and her fight to claim her place in the world... She's scared, she's alone, she's brave, and she's fierce. Raising Wrenns is an unflinching look at the messiness of life, the sometimes heart-wrenching complexity of family relationships, and profound strength of the human spirit.

The only way people get out of Worcester is in a body bag, people used to say when Mal was growing up in the Main South neighborhood-crash-landing in house after house like true wrens, her family's nutty avian namesake.

Raising Wrenns recounts her trips back to Worcester after the men in her family lost their lives; first her dad when he was shot, and later her brother who committed suicide jumping off a roof. On these trips she revisits the shoddy apartments they perched in, resurrecting her macabre, sometimes comical childhood memories of the streets where they fought bloody and birdlike for their survival.

The book is cordoned by fantastical and scientific stories comparing her family's world and personality traits with those of wrens. It also contains a creative history of Worcester, a former factory town plagued by poverty, addiction, and violence-a cycle that Mal, unlike her brother and father, was able to escape.

Review Quotes

"... A raw look at the realities of growing up in poverty and instability, and its unflinching style is complemented by poetic interstitials comparing each family member to specific characteristics of wrens. Although the story is very personal, it also touches on broader systemic issues affecting families in similar socio-economic conditions.... A poignant and resonant memoir of loss.... OUR VERDICT: GET IT."

-Kirkus Reviews (Recommended review)