Book Review For South Florida Social Magazine's May Issue

By Tom Casey

In this last review of the season, I’ve taken a look at a book published by Global Authors Publications, or GAP. For those of you with writing aspirations, and I suspect there are many, this venue offers legitimate opportunity to have your work competently published and professionally marketed. In “Tragedy in Tin Can Holler”, Floridian Rozetta Mowery has turned the flowery sentimentality we have come to expect of family history on its head: she has written a memoir from hell.

 

Hardscrabble doesn’t begin to describe the Snopes-like existence of this family. Ms. Mowery’s horrific story unfolds in the voice of a sensitive girl from a background of limited prospects, where violence and indecency were commonplace. Her earnest quest for the truth about her family plays against the ferocious characters who emerge from her research. Court transcripts, prison logs, letters, accounts of fraudulent adoptions, and the testimony of witnesses paint a picture of ravenous neglect, incest, and homicide. Here is everything you would never wish to discover about your relatives: Grandma was a hog farmer who lured mail-order husbands to her ranch and killed them, practiced prostitution, infanticide, and turned her son, Seig, the author’s father, into a murderer before he reached adulthood. But reach adulthood he did, married Eliza, and fathered six children. But Seig Mowery, an epic alcoholic and philander, had a violent nature and a criminal mind. After his second incarceration, his six poverty-stricken children were removed from their emotionally broken mother and placed in an orphanage, the author among them. Following his release from prison, Seig returned to his wife, and shortly thereafter, murdered her. The second half of Ms Mowery’s book is a conventional portrait of her brothers and sisters, what happened to each of them and to their children, but a story of privation and misadventure continues.

 

It’s difficult to explain this book’s curious effect. It lifts the lid on a strain of the American experience most of us will never know, and if we did, would be reluctant to discuss. And when you think you’ve heard it all and seen it all, a Mohawk Carpets truck wheels out of nowhere and runs down her sister. It leaves you breathless with wonder at how bad hard luck can be.  “We have only two basic responses to life, one is fear and the other is love,” the author writes in her conclusion. In completing her project Rozetta Mowery has explored her capacities for love, taken the healthiest course to redemption, and perhaps most importantly, faced and gone beyond the cruel truths of her own and her family’s past.

 

More Reviews:

 

Like slowly pulling an ice pick out of the heart. Rozetta Mowery holds a mirror in front of America and gives one of the most devastating real life accounts of domestic violence and its vicious cycle ever put on paper. The brutality is not just read, it is relived and the reader is there. The pain seethes through every page like an ice pick pushed inches deeper as you read along. Rosie's survival and ability to cope became an ice pick slowly being pulled out of the reader where she and we note a healing process. The book is an indictment against domestic abuse and should be among required reading for women as well as men who are drawn toward or feel trapped in abusive relationships. The fact this book was written at all is in itself a miracle. Hats off to the new voice speaking out against domestic violence!

William Wright, Journalist and Screenwriter

"Tragedy in Tin Can Holler" is Rozetta Mowery's account of the hard things that led to the murder of her mother by her father. The story, which spans generations and describes the decades of physical, psychological, sexual and substance abuse that culminated in that brutal murder, unspools in precise, measured language that recalls Capote's "In Cold Blood."  Mowery in unsparing in the details as she pursues the leads that will give her the answers she's sought since her mother was taken from her at age seven. Remarkably, she ends her account with a word of forgiveness, which must be a testament to the influence of a Higher Power.      

"Tragedy in Tin Can Holler" should perhaps be read in pieces. I raced through it in one sitting and couldn't sleep for three nights. I suspect I'll always carry this story with me. When you read something by Stephen King, you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that it's only fiction. Unfortunately, the monsters described by Mowery don't exist only between the covers of a book. They're real and they're all the more haunting for it.

Luke Osteen, Freelance Journalist

 

GRIPPING!!!  ASTONISHING!!!!  HORRIFYING!!!!  Once I picked up “Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” and started reading, I could not put it down! A tragic family history swept under the carpet and hidden in the floorboards of history!  A vicious family history of sexual violence, deceit, adultery, blackmail, mystery and murder uncovered by the tortured mind of a child left to live in the poverty of the infamous Tin Can Holler.  Even though surrounded by poverty, danger, and uncertainty, the author reminisces about the joyous childhood times spent with friends, family and loved ones in one of the poorest areas of Athens Tennessee.  This book is a must read!  Not only is it a great story, it is a lesson in survival and how a righteous person trying to find the truth of her dark family history is led down a path of emotional torment and terror.  It takes a brave and dedicated person to seek the truth when it has been buried over the decades, especially if it is a hidden truth of one’s own family.  Author Rozetta Mowery has looked evil right in the face and triumphed over it with strength, steadfastness, dignity and an undeniable dedication to life and the human spirit!

Mark Vasconcellos, Actor/Filmmaker  

 

“Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” is one of the most compelling, gripping and skillfully written stories I have read regarding the destructive effects of domestic violence, abuse and deceit over a period of five generations.  Written by one who was herself a victim, this book reveals, in a heart-rending way, the history of her family for over 150 years and the crimes perpetrated by and against them.  Readers of this story will be stirred to help break the cycle of abuse so prevalent in America today. 

Reverend Charles A. Hutchins, M.S.W., Child Psychologist and Minister

 

“Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” is the most compelling and riveting story, I have ever read. I could not put it down. This story will not only touch you but it will make you realize that domestic abuse should never be ignored. I strongly feel this story will help many to open their eyes to seek help for themselves or someone they love. Rozetta has revealed the true dark side to domestic abuse. I admire her inspiration to overcome all the traumatic things in her life and to be able to write this wonderful book is truly an accomplishment of a lifetime. 

Randall Lawson, Author  “Corruption in the Medicine Cabinet”  

 

After reading “Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” I find myself wondering why we still do not protect the innocent and why we still allow abuse and murder of women and children go unchecked in our society. The tragedy in Tin Can Holler is a lesson in how the circle of abuse continues thru generations. The cycle never stops. The abused become the abusers. This book is filled with lessons that every man, woman and child need to learn. There are still women in our society who behind closed doors are the victims along with their children. This book should give one the courage to break the cycle of abuse. It only takes one person to make a difference. After reading this powerful book, one will come away with a different perspective about abuse and the end result of apathy and indifference. “Very well written"

Yvonne Mason, Author “Stan's Story, A Touch of Love”

 

This book touches so many of the readers senses, as Rozetta sets out on a quest to find herself and answer questions that have haunted her since she was 7 years old.  “Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” is an unbelievable true story of how she overcomes one families’ history of violence and tragedy.  Her research and documentation, as well as personal accounts, gives her readers an insight that is both haunting and endearing.

Paulette Jones

Meigs County, Tennessee Historian

Meigs County Retired Language Arts Teacher

 

“Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” is an absorbing true story that depicts the unforgettable struggle of one young seven year old girl to overcome the vicious murder of her mother and after years of probing, still have the courage to tell her lifetime story showing murder, poverty, incest and domestic violence throughout her entire family structure for decades.  She brought herself up from a dirt-floor shack in Tin Can Holler to an incredible, successful, remarkable woman.  If we had to rate this book from 1 to 10, it would definitely be an 11.

Diane Hiscoe, Executive Assistant and Ken Hiscoe, retired Police Officer and former Mayor

 

“Tragedy in Tin Can Holler” is a not to be missed true story that will keep you on the edge of your chair!  You will not be able to put it down until the last word is read!

Harold Hunter, Community Development Director for the City of Athens, TN

 

"Tragedy in Tin Can Holler" is a compelling must read story that details the depths and evil of domestic violence and one child’s struggle to uncover the truth and break its cycle.

Clayton D. Edwards, Senior Vice President, Clinical and Pharmacy Operations,  Liberty Medical Supply Pharmacy in Port St. Lucie, FL