Crow’s memoir is cinematically gripping-the depth of Thurston’s sociopathic depravity is as riveting as it is repulsive.

The author finally felt the need to stop his father and found the courage to try. But Thurston’s madness continued to haunt the author-his father tried to pull Crow’s sister, Sally, into a conspiracy to commit a crime. Department of Agriculture administration. Crow struggled at school-he was diagnosed with dyslexia-but still managed to graduate from college and eventually win a position with the U.S. The author idolized his father, nevertheless, and pined to become “smart and strong and brave” just like Thurston, sometimes perversely winning his praise for ungovernable mischievousness. Thelma Lou was mentally disturbed, and her combination of incompetence and motherly negligence consistently endangered her children. Thurston finally forced Crow to orchestrate their abandonment of her. When Crow was not yet 4 years old, Thurston confided in him that he would soon get rid of Thelma Lou, the author’s mother. He was also an unrepentant thief who recruited the author to be his accomplice in crime. Thurston spent time in prison for nearly beating a man to death and often bragged about other murders he committed or planned to perpetrate. A writer recollects an astonishingly dysfunctional childhood under the violent, criminal tyranny of his father.Īccording to debut author Crow, his father, Thurston, was as intelligent as he was dangerous-apparently the bearer of an uncommonly high IQ, he was also alarmingly volatile.

The pale faced lie review