Hero Mama: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost in Vietnam -- and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together FROM THE PUBLISHER
"It's the 1960s and nine-year-old Karen Spears is living in a trailer in middle Georgia. Her father, David Spears, was killed in the la Drang Valley in Vietnam, and left behind three young children and a wife with a ninth-grade education. Hero Mama is the story of what happened to this Southern family in the aftermath of a soldier's death." "At first the widow Spears appeared to fall apart - turning herself into a beer-guzzling, good-time girl, while her children responded in kind. Eventually she recognized how much her children needed her and, with mule-headed tenacity, she earned her nursing degree and bought the family a real home fashioned from bricks, rising above her own flaws to forge a better life for her kids. Now Karen Spears Zacharias pays tribute to this woman of guts and determination - her Hero Mama - who battled overwhelming adversity to pull her family up and make them proud of her, and of themselves." Hero Mama is also the story of the South, where a young girl grew up against an emotionally charged landscape of racism and bigotry, where the daughter of a fallen soldier had to face the stigma of a war nobody wanted, and where a family in crisis pulled together to achieve its own version of the American dream.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In December 1965, David Spears said good-bye to his wife and three children and went to fight in Vietnam; he returned "in a cargo plane full of caskets" in July 1966. His family has never been the same. "He was the center of what made me feel safe," Zacharias, then in third grade, explains. Her mother cried nonstop and never spoke of her beloved again. There wasn't much time for grief, anyway. Spears's paltry life insurance money was soon gone, and Zacharias's mother was a high school dropout living in a cramped trailer home in Tennessee with three kids. She put herself through nursing school while working and raising those youngsters. Although Zacharias's brother struggled with drugs and the teenage Zacharias had to have an abortion before realizing getting pregnant wasn't the best way to find reliable love, they all turned out fine eventually. Readers may enjoy Zacharias's mom's trailer park smarts (a woman's best protection is "a good padded bra") and her colorful Southern-isms (her hungover brother was "sicker than a yard dog with scours"). But while Zacharias entertains, her main point-that a soldier's death brings pain and sorrow to many generations of his family-is a sad truth that Americans are beginning to relearn. Photos. Agent, Carole Bidnick. (On sale Jan. 18) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In this intimate memoir, Zacharias, an award-winning journalist, celebrates her parents: father David Spears, who died in 1966 while serving in Vietnam, and mother Shelby Spears, who was left to raise three young children. The author remembers life growing up without a father, moving from one trailer park to another, as her mother tried as best she could to keep herself and her family together. Shelby is portrayed not as a saint but rather a real person with both flaws and assets. For comfort, she often turned to men and alcohol, yet she studied and worked long hours to put herself through nursing school in order to give her family a better life. As a child, Zacharias did not always think that Shelby made the best parenting decisions, yet Shelby was always willing to lend a hand to those in need, often taking in relatives who had nowhere else to go. Although her story is often grim and tear-inducing, the author celebrates her family and speaks with a genuine and true voice. Recommended for all public libraries.-Sarah Jent, Univ. of Louisville Lib., KY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
The daughter of a soldier killed in Vietnam graphically chronicles the permanent wounds his death inflicted on his family. While she honors all those who like her father served their country in that war, Zacharias is more intent on writing about the pain that war inflicts, not its inherent morality. In the summer of 1966, when she learned of her husband's death, Shelby Spears was living in a trailer in rural Tennessee with son Frankie, middle child Karen (the author, then a third-grader), and baby Linda. Shelby dropped out of tenth grade in 1953 to marry David, a career soldier who reached the rank of staff sergeant. She liked life as a military wife: she enjoyed being stationed in places like Germany and Hawaii; she found that other families on the bases were always supportive; and health services and schooling were readily available. After David's death, however, her own family was little help as she struggled with her grief and the problems of raising three children on her own. Zacharias describes moving to Georgia and living in a succession of dingy trailer courts while her mother completed high school, went on to nursing school, and finally earned enough to buy a house for the family. But her success came at considerable cost. Shelby had a number of affairs, often bringing strangers home at night. She left the children alone to fend for themselves while she worked or partied. And she never talked about their father, which hurt the most. Frank turned to drugs, and Karen, though a devout Christian, became pregnant in high school and had an abortion. The family survived, but it was a long and rough haul. They remained haunted by their father's death, which Zacharias hints may haveresulted from friendly fire. The author continues to be active in Vietnam veterans' affairs. Though the family's plight is overdetailed, the current war with Iraq gives their story particular relevance. Book-of-the-Month Club/Literary Guild featured alternate selection. Agent: Carole Bidnick/Bidnick & Co.
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