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STORKBITES A Book
Review by Lara F. Cooper
Coronado Eagle and Journal on November 26 - December 02,
2003
Marie Etienne, author of "Storkbites," recently signed copies of
her memoir at Bay Books. This riveting memoir travels back and forth between
her painful childhood in the South to her troubled adulthood in Northern California.
Etienne, who frequently visits her former in-laws in Coronado, took about 5 _ years to write "Storkbites." She describes it as "both a cathartic and healing process" and an "opportunity to have my say." She wrote 5 hours a night in bookstores and cafes and would "cry all the way home and for a couple of hours after that."
Etienne writes of alcoholic parents alternately showering
her and her eight siblings with gifts or violently abusing them. Her mother
frequently woke them in the middle of the night while inebriated and beat
them for no reason. The next day their father, who drank just as much as his
wife but largely ignored the abuse, would give them a new carousel or puppy.
One of those puppies was eventually kicked to death by her mother.
"Storkbites" details the years of alcoholism, rebellion, mental
illness, and therapy that she and all her siblings go through. After giving
birth to her two children she realizes that she’s about to repeat that
pattern of abuse unless she vows to break the cycle and heal herself first.
"Fear or love, that’s the choice," she writes in her memoir.
Etienne says of writing "Storkbites," "It
helped me understand what my parents’ lives were like, to feel more compassion
for them. Now I’m not as prone to let old wounds fester and hurt me."
Near the end of "Storkbites," Etienne writes, "I can’t
fall asleep unless I’m lying on my back and facing the door." But
today she says, "I’ve created a good life for myself. I feel strong
now. I surround myself with positive people."
Etienne has decided that her two young boys, who travel with her to some book
readings, will be able to read their mother’s journal when they are 16.
Only then will they be allowed to take the autographed copies out of their
closet and discover the physical pain, mental suffering, and ultimate triumph
over both that their mother went through.
