Author:  Floriana Hall

Publisher:  CeShore Publishing Co., an Imprint of Sterlinghouse Publishers of Pittsburgh

ISBN:  1-58501-070-7

The following review was contributed by: Jennifer Brown

Floriana Hall is one of a generation of great tale-tellers.  Born on October 2, 1927, just before the start of the Great Depression, Floriana’s generation is of the last to remember growing up and enduring incredible hardship and poverty in this country.  To add to her family’s privation was the philandering and deceiving nature of her father.  DADDY WAS A BAD BOY is Floriana’s story.

Floriana’s family was no stranger to hard times, many days eating only bread smeared with lard and sprinkled with sugar.  At times when her father, the sole bread-winner of the family, was missing for days, weeks, or months on end, Floriana watched her mother go without meals to ensure that the children could eat, or beg for credit simply to buy a loaf of bread.  She recalls living in homes with outhouses or homes too small for their family, bread lines and rationing during the war, and even times when she had to endure the harsh and unfair punishments doled out by her stern grandfather.

Still, Floriana managed to enjoy her childhood.  Although her family was uprooted frequently, she still managed to maintain top grades, make many friends, and have her fair share of fun.  In DADDY WAS A BAD BOY, Floriana recalls such things as listening to radio programs, roller skating and ice skating with friends, and playing the piano.

While DADDY WAS A BAD BOY is a mesmerizing memoir of life growing up in the ‘20’s and ‘30’s, taking the reader all the way to present day, it is made even more so by weaving the tale of Floriana’s father, who was uncaring, philandering,  and deceitful at best.  The reader is able to feel the pain of a family forgotten through Floriana’s eyes and ultimately witness the repentance of a sick man through his own letters. 

As with most memoirs, the reader must pay close attention to names while reading DADDY WAS A BAD BOY, as family trees tend to tangle together a labyrinth of names that can blur into each other.  Additionally, Hall alternately refers to her father as “Dad” and “Luke” – perhaps highlighting her own ambiguous feelings about just who this man was to her – which can tend to throw off a reader who is not careful.  However, the story itself is so compelling, a reader would not likely need worry about not paying close enough attention.

Overall, DADDY WAS A BAD BOY is a gripping tale of a life virtually unknown to most of us today – life before modernization such as TV’s, microwave ovens, and frozen dinners – and Floriana Hall a testament to the human spirit.  Says Floriana, “All my life, no matter what happened, I never dwelled on the negatives.  It’s a good thing, as many were to come.  But my happy nature, along with prayer and positive thinking, kept me smiling.” (p. 11)

No doubt, DADDY WAS A BAD BOY would keep a reader smiling as well.