Dorothy Allison's River of Names focuses on two young lovers reminiscing about their childhoods. The narrator, unfortunately, had a much more troubling childhood than her lover, Jesse, so retelling her childhood stories troubles her greatly. As a child, she was frequently beaten and raped by her stepfather. In addition, she witnessed many births and deaths within her family, causing her to have few true connections with her "family" because they came and went to so quickly within her life. Jesse, on the contrary, had a simple and pleasant childhood, filled with happy and typical memories. Oddly enough, Jesse finds the narrators life amusing and fascinating; her stories of death and disappearances of family members only make her laugh.
This story was particularly troubling to me because I can't begin to imagine how difficult the narrators life. It really made me appreciate my life and how lucky I am to have such good memories from my childhood and to have formed so many meaningful relationships with my family members.
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