A Good Girl
A Good Girl by Johnnie Bernhard, published by Texas Review Press in 2017, is a 212-page exploration of family dynamics and personal history. The narrative follows Gracey Reiter as she faces the impending death of her father, Henry Mueller, a figure steeped in the complexities of the Walsh-Mueller family legacy. Through this poignant journey, Gracey seeks to understand her father’s struggles with alcoholism, her mother’s infidelity, and the differing perspectives of her siblings, all while confronting her own painful past and uncertain future.
Readers will find that A Good Girl delves into themes of family life and cultural heritage, using a blend of biting humor and raw honesty. As Gracey navigates the emotional landscape shaped by her family’s history, she discovers the strength to voice her own truths. The story unfolds against the backdrop of significant family events, including Henry’s funeral and her daughter Therese’s wedding, which together symbolize the intertwining of past and future. This edition presents a thoughtful examination of the challenges of raising children and coping with loss across generations.
Official synopsis Publisher
Gracey Reiter confronts a painful past and an intimidating future with the approaching death of her father, Henry Mueller, the self-described “last Mohican” from the chaotic gene pool known as the Walsh-Mueller family. The present holds the answer, and the last opportunity for Gracey to understand her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s infidelity, and her siblings’ version of the truth.
The voices of the past give Gracey the courage to find her voice. Using biting humor and gut-level truths for the first time in her life, Gracey walks across the land mines created by a crippling family legacy.
Henry’s funeral and the Irish wedding of Therese Mueller, Gracey’s and her husband Mark Mueller’s daughter, coincide by a few weeks and serve as a completion of the family circle. With the closing of one door, and the opening of the future, Gracey finds forgiveness by realizing six generations of the Walsh-Mueller family, saints and sinners, criminals and heroes, the abandoned and the celebrated, are forever family, forever bound by blood and the dreams of an Irish girl, Patricia Walsh Mueller.
A Good Girl examines the numbing work of raising children and burying parents through six generations.
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