Somebody's Someone: A Memoir
by Regina Louise

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Book Reviews of Somebody's Someone: A Memoir

Book Review: I Want to Belong to Somebody
Summary: 5 Stars

Regina Louise Ollison is an eleven year-old girl, born to a woman who had Regina's sister, Doretha, at age thirteen and then her, five years later. She is given away to Big Mama, Johnnie Jean Thornhill, as a baby because her mother is unable or unwilling to care for her and her father's whereabouts are unknown. In this household, every kind of dysfunction exists, not the least is physical abuse of which Regina is a recipient. When she is beaten within an inch of her life by Lula, Regina runs away and calls Odetta, a woman she remembers as her father's mother. Odetta comes to the rescue, and is eager to do right by her granddaughter but trouble always finds Regina and she runs back to Big Mama's house where she feels safe. Big Mama puts her on a bus to North Carolina with some vanilla wafers, a soda and twenty-five cents and tells her that someone may or may not meet her on the other end.

Regina is overjoyed to be reunited with her mother, Ruby, even if she has to share her with two younger brothers and Mr. Benny. Yet though she has her mother, she still yearns for the demonstrative signs of affection that never seem to materialize. The next thing Regina knows, she is on a plane to her dad in Richmond, California. Her father is supposed to be a songwriter and artist who spends long periods in Los Angles away from his wife and two younger daughters in the Bay Area. Again, Regina is unwanted and unloved and through a series of events, ends up in a wayward home for girls. The County continually attempts to place her in a succession of foster homes to no avail. Regina, who grows up on 70s television with a vision of being part of a Brady Bunch family, is still looking for someone to love her. She finds it in one of the workers at the home, Miss Claire, who shows her unconditional love.

This is such a compelling, heart wrenching story--- hard to read yet it begs to be. Descriptive and well-written, the sometimes illiterate, southern dialect might be a distraction for some readers. At times you want to wring Regina's neck, her behavior seemed to be the cause of many of her problems, yet it went so much deeper. The years of abuse, the abandonment by her parents (her father tells her he doesn't love her), and the lack of black role models all contribute to her problems. To see the confident Regina today, who is a successful hairstylist/businesswoman and writer, there is no evidence that she was once destined to fail. This story will grab you, shake you up and make you count your blessings for your childhood. This is truly a testament to human survival and the strength of the human spirit.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub

Summary of Somebody's Someone: A Memoir

African-American & Black Books

• Books > Subjects > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National
• Family & Childhood
• Memoirs
• Specific Groups > Women