Reviews

“Jennie Helderman has taken a heart-breaking issue and boiled it down to human beings, of flesh and blood and lost days and fearful nights. It opens the door on a too-common human story, and closes you in with it.”

– Rick Bragg
Pulitzer Prize winning author of
The Most They Ever Had, All Over But the Shouting,
Ava’s Man, and The Prince of Frogtown

“Helderman chronicles a woman’s journey from battered wife to advocate for victims of spousal abuse in this nonfiction work.

Two quotes set the stage for this well-researched narrative that puts a human face on an all-too-common issue. The first comes from Ginger McNeil, who tells the author, “I lived in a cabin in the woods, too poor to afford electricity, and too afraid of my husband to leave.” The second comes from Ginger’s husband, Mike, who, matter-of-factly and without remorse, comments: “One time I hauled off and slapped the fool out of her….Men will understand….I wouldn’t change a thing if I could go back.” Hearing these words, the author, then on assignment to write a magazine piece about poverty in Alabama, switched her focus to McNeil and her story. In this book, she reports with a journalist’s keen eye and ear for the telling detail and quote: “I noticed her when she came in the door,” says a county clerk worker, recalling Ginger years later. “She looked broken down, like an old hollow-eyed woman in a faded cotton print dress. I could see she was frightened to death.” The author notes that the family lived remotely, like pioneers or survivalists; “He chose this way of life for us,” McNeil explains. In Helderman’s telling, McNeil’s fraught exit from her marriage (a scene in which her husband shows up at a court hearing and hands her a picture of their dead son, a suicide victim, is chilling) feels like a hard-won triumph. The author does give Mike—now deceased—the opportunity to tell his side (“It wasn’t all bad. Ginger and me”). Though those encounters thrum with the tension of possible threats to her own safety, she does an admirable job of presenting his perspective without resorting to “gotcha” questions. But the narrative is rooted in McNeil’s bravery and her determination to tell her story as repayment to the women’s shelter workers who aided her. This is an updated version of Helderman’s award-winning 2010 book.

At times a difficult read, but the humanity and McNeil’s indomitable spirit shine through.”

-Kirkus Review (starred)

“Rarely has a story of a woman’s courageous fight for freedom been told in such an eloquent and moving way. And, even more unusual, we get an open view into the twisted mentality of a man who was able, like so many abusers, to convince the outside world that he was normal. A hard book to put down.”

– Lundy Bancroft
author of Why Does He Do That? and co-author of
Should I Stay or Should I Go

“This is a page turner! A powerful portrayal of mind control!

– Patricia Evans
author of Controlling People

“This story grabs hold of your heart and squeezes it dry. It is a tale so touching, so emotionally overwhelming, women will cringe and thank God they never had to walk in Ginger’s shoes, and men will wish they could have met Ginger’s husband in a dark alley. I applaud author Jennie Helderman’s gift for writing, I marvel at Ginger’s courage for sharing it.”

– Jedwin Smith
two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, author of
Our Brother’s Keepers and Fatal Treasure

“This amazing chronicle of a courageous woman’s escape from a life of poverty, squalor, and domestic violence should attract many, many readers. It should also be a contender for awards.”

– Julia Oliver,
author of Devotion,
winner of the 2007 John Esten Cooke
Award for Southern Fiction

“Jennie Helderman did her research for As the Sycamore Grows, and it shows! …an accurate and compelling account…a valuable resource.”

– Linda Busby Parker
author of Seven Laurels, winner of the James Jones Award
and the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction

“I read As the Sycamore Grows in one sitting….It illustrates how all domestic violence cases are similar and how each one is totally unique. Ginger’s courage and strength, and her ultimate triumph, shine a light for other battered women seeking freedom from violence for themselves and their children.”

– Carol Gundlach
Executive Director,
Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence

“Helderman portrays in poignant detail the intricacies of domestic downfall through dialogue. As the Sycamore Grows explores the complex and evolving nature of a relationship unable to help itself; of two people spiraling slowly—almost inexorably—toward disaster. Helderman illuminates the compounding nature of isolated incidents and arguments, providing the reader with an introspective look at how abusive behavior can accumulate to foment domestic misery.”

– Representative Cynthia Thielen
Co-Chair, Women’s Caucus, Hawaii State Legislature