Title: Celebration(s)
Author: Pat Willene
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-0-7596-6091-5
Pages: 372
Genre: Memoir / Psychology
Reviewed by: Candace L. Barr
Pacific Book Review
At first it seems Pat Willene has chosen an odd title for her memoir. Celebration(s) is a painful read because it details the cruelties visited upon her and her beloved older sister throughout their childhoods and adult lives. Perhaps the title is meant to give readers something to hope for as they work their way through the chapters; just as the Jackson sisters had to look for small victories as they lived through the events detailed in the book. At its heart, the story told is one of a hard-won sisterhood that was tested by abuse including physical and emotional distance. Patsy June and Delois Jane Jackson were three years apart in age and shared a bedroom, but at times it seemed as if they were miles apart – as each tried to cope in her own way with the turmoil in their home. As adults, they still worked at their relationship despite the elder’s long-distance moves.
The first third of the book goes into the abuse Pat and Dee suffered at the hands of their emotionally disturbed father in painful detail. Between her telling of the physical punishments the sisters had to endure for small or even nonexistent transgressions, as well as the tirades, which revealed their father’s obsession with sexuality, Willene has captured the image of an insecure and extremely sick man who vented his frustration with his own inadequacy on his wife and daughters. She also illustrates the effect he had even when he wasn’t actively abusing them – physical manifestations of fear and anxiety, which were common in the household and uncertainty, followed them even when he was no longer there.
Though their father died when they were in their early twenties, his memory haunted the sisters for years afterward. While Willene was able to forge a better relationship with her sister even after Dee’s transatlantic move, her other relationships suffered. She discusses how the “lessons” from her childhood worked their way into her relationships and her own childrearing. Her fear of failure in life and parenthood led her to counseling, and her reluctance to show affection plagued her even as she was writing the book.
I can imagine – and hope – Willene achieved a profound sense of catharsis from writing out the traumas and emotions she kept mostly to herself for all of these years. As many victims of abuse, she, her sister, and her mother kept what they endured in their home, as they rarely talked about it even to each other. While she may have felt ashamed all those years ago, she can be proud that Celebration(s) turned out to be a well thought out release of built up emotions. This is a book which needed to be written and will help others by reading it whether or not they are victims of past paternal abuses.
