Author: Trish MacEnulty
Narrator: Kerri Van Kirk
Unabridged: 8 hr 10 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 02/19/2024
Trish spends her time hustling and cheating to score. Heroin, Dilaudids, whatever she can get.
Precisely plotting the slippery slope of a heroin addict's existence, The Hummingbird Kiss paints a bleak picture but still manages to offer a ray of hope. The '70s are young, and 18-year-old Trish is a newlywed. When a Florida judge sentences her junkie husband to ten years for stealing stereos, she immediately seeks out a fix, and before she knows it she's hooked. There follows a long sojourn as she and her friends work small scams to score, head to California in search of better highs, move back to Florida, shoot up and nod off every chance they get — until death gets some of them.
MacEnulty has constructed a gritty and sorrowful book about a young girl with an appetite for the damage done. Trish comes from a broken but still functional family. She's witty, articulate and street-smart enough to know better than to get caught up in this life of self destruction, but childhood abandonment and the ensuing self-loathing are too much for her to manage without medication. Her life unravels as her cross-country wanderings take her from drug dens to rehabs to prison, with a few bleary-eyed months spent scoring drugs in the Tijuana barrios.
The author spares us no detail of her sordid descent, but Trish remains an engaging voice whose innate grain of goodness and interest in humanity keeps the reader on her side. Trish declines to blame anyone for her calamitous state. All she wants is the "hummingbird kiss of the needle" — the most wonderful experience she knows — until she inevitably winds up in prison and rediscovers the girl she once was.
"Searingly honest, often funny, always sordid story of a junkie’s life in the 1970s."—Chauncey Mabe, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Ophelia DeVore boldly overcame tragedy and hardship to become the first black model in the United States of America. She possessed grace, finesse, intelligence, natural beauty, and courage. Being the first black graduate of the Vogue Modeling School...
We’ve all read - and loved - the adventures of Harry Potter and his friends in the Wizarding World. But what of the genius behind it all, J.K. Rowling? Was getting the first book published easy for her, or was it a long struggle? How did she c...
Every woman has had this experience: you get to the end of the day and realize you did nothing for you. And if you go days, weeks, or even months in this cycle, you begin to feel like you have lost a bit of yourself.While life is busy with a litany ...
Helen Keller's triumph over blindness and deafness has become one of the most inspiring stories of our time. Popularized through plays and movies, it is an unparalleled chronicle of courage and a timeless testament to human strength. With sincerity ...
From the bestselling author of The Vagina Monologues and one of Newsweek's 150 Women Who Changed the World, a visionary memoir of separation and connection—to the body, the self, and the worldPlaywright, author, and activist Eve Ensler has dev...
“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.” Nujood Ali's childhood came to an abrupt end in 20...
Today, nursing is one of the most ubiquitous professions in the world, and images of war immediately call to mind nursing the wounded, but it was not long ago that such ideas were relatively primitive. Indeed, schoolchildren are still taught about t...
Not all governments have been run by men. Lives of Extraordinary Women turns the spotlight on the women who have wielded power, revealing their feats-and flaws-for all the world to see. Here you'll find twenty of the most influential women in histor...
Over a quarter of a century after its first publication, the great and simple wisdom in this book continues to influence women's lives.