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Between Two Trailers
Between Two Trailers: A Memoir | J. Dana Trent
8 posts | 7 read | 8 to read
A powerful, unforgettable memoir about a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer in rural Indianaonly to find that no one can really make it out until they make peace with where their story began: home Home, it turns out, is where the war is. Its also where the healing begins. Dana Trent is only a preschooler the first time she uses a razor blade to cut up weed and fill dime bags for her schizophrenic father, King. While King struggles with his unmedicated psychosis, Danas mother, the Lady, a cold and self-absorbed woman whose personality disorders rule the home, guards large bricks of drugs from the safety of their squalid trailer. But when the Lady impulsively plucks Dana from the Midwest and moves the two of them south, their fresh start results in homelessness and bankruptcy. In North Carolina, Dana becomes torn between her gritty midwestern past and her newfound desire to be a polite southern girl, struggling to reconcile her shame with an ache to figure out who she is, and where she belongs. But the past is never far behind. After persevering through childhood and eventually graduating from Duke University, Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her, only to realize that running from her upbringing has kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that though love for family is universally complicated, there is no shame in survival, and for those who want it, there is always a path home.
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jdiehr
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A difficult story with a hopeful/happy ending.

This memoir is something else! The author was raised by two very mentally ill parents and was helping her dad deal drugs when she was a preschooler.

Unbelievable. Powerful. Well told. Well-written.

Suet624 Her early years were so wild. 3d
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mcctrish
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A lot of gasping out loud and laughing while I listened to this, polar extremes for this mind blowing memoir. Dana grew up in rural Indiana with two parents who had mental illness and a drug trafficking business. Her dad put her to work when she go kicked out of preschool cutting up weed for dine bags and acting as a lookout when he did business 🤦🏻‍♀️

CoverToCoverGirl Truth really is stranger than fiction. Good grief! 👀 1w
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Suet624
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Some memoirs make you say, “Thank God I didn‘t grow up this way.” Trent is raised by a paranoid schizophrenic drug dealer dad and a narcissistic dependent personality mother. Eventually her parents divorce and live in two different states, with Trent having to experience both parents‘ illnesses. It‘s a quick read and the last quarter feels rushed but it‘s definitely a vision of hope that she made it through her childhood. (Photo: my Main Street)

squirrelbrain Gorgeous photo! ❤️ 3w
AmyG Yikes! Looks like I had it really, really good. 🤣 3w
Suet624 @Squirrelbrain those trees have been that red for several weeks now. Maybe even three weeks. They‘re tall and fabulous. 3w
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Suet624 @AmyG I hear ya! 3w
BarbaraBB What a beautiful trees ❤️ 3w
Suet624 @BarbaraBB I always know when the leaves fall off those trees that tourists will officially be gone until at least December. 3w
Avanders It‘s so pretty… that‘s one color we get *very* little of here in the southwest, but when I lived in the Midwest we had them a-plenty! It‘s one of my favorite fall colors. ☺️🍁♥️ 3w
Suet624 @Avanders I am always so excited when the reds arrive. 😊💕 3w
44 likes8 comments
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Suet624
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“A preschooler‘s hands are the perfect size for razor blades. I know because I helped my schizophrenic drug-lord father chop, drop, and traffic kilos in kiddie carnival-ride carcasses across flyover country.”

What a way to start a memoir.

Michael_Gee I‘m sorry, what?! 3w
LeahBergen Wow! 😮 3w
Suet624 @Michael_Gee also, her father duct taped her bottle filled with chocolate milk to her hands while he was busy bagging drugs. 3w
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mcctrish 🤯 3w
Tamra Definitely extraordinary! 3w
BkClubCare Yikes 3w
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MaggieCarr
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Wow. This one will stay with me for a while.

If you were engrossed with Educated (Tara Westover) Between Two Trailers will be equally as powerful.

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MysticFaerie
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4⭐️/5⭐️

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Chelsea.Poole
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J Dana Trent grew up between two trailers, one in Indiana, the homeplace of her father and the other in rural North Carolina, her mother‘s home. Though her parents started out together raising their daughter, things quickly became untethered between the couple, as both suffer from mental illness.
This surely is dysfunctional—the book begins with Dana‘s memories at age 4, preparing drugs to sell for her father‘s employer. But hopeful in the end.

Megabooks Great review! 6mo
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Megabooks
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Dana‘s parents met in a mental hospital, and she was helping her dad bag drugs when she was barely out of diapers. She became overly attentive to her mother‘s frequent mood swings making sure never to rile her up.

This was a fantastic dysfunctional family memoir that addressed mental illness, addiction, and poverty. Dana treats her parents with empathy while holding them accountable for the difficult parts of her childhood.

Chelsea.Poole I have this checked out! Great review! 6mo
Megabooks @Chelsea.Poole thanks! I hope you like it, too. Lots of good memoirs this year! 6mo
70 likes2 stack adds2 comments