Canada AM Book Selection
Beyond Words Book Selection
A remarkable debut novel and bittersweet tale of the unflinching love and devotion between a mother and daughter.Razor sharp and darkly funny Going Down Swingingchronicles two years in the life of the Hoffmans. Eilleen Hoffman has just told Danny, her con-artist lover and father of her youngest daughter Grace, to get out — for good. Once a teacher, Eilleen lived a middle-class life, but her taste in men coupled with a predilection for pills and booze has brought her down. Desperate to prevent her family from sinking deeper into poverty, Eilleen reluctantly goes on welfare. Eventually she turns to the only friends she has left, hustlers and hookers, to learn how a woman makes fast money, no investment necessary.With Eilleen on welfare and her older daughter Charlotte a teenaged runaway, child welfare authorities descend on the Hoffmans. As Eilleen trails through several attempts at drying out, the well-intentioned Children's Protection Society finally intervenes to apprehend Grace. With the threat of prolonged separation now a stark reality, Eilleen and Grace must rally to confront their demons with grit, determination and humour. Unblinkingly observed and brilliantly written, Going Down Swinging is about the powerful bond between mother and child. And with her skilful narrative interplay, Billie Livingston illustrates poignantly how the truth of our stories lies not so much in the black and white, as it does in the grey.
Reviews:
“GOING DOWN SWINGING is a moving first book, and Livingston a compelling new voice — one that should be welcomed and watched.”
“Livingston succeeds gorgeously in capturing the messiness and unresolvable ambiguities of familial love. Her lovingly drawn, half-crazy characters always transcend a caseworker’s clichés.”
“Livingston’s characters are scrappers. They’re canny and sharp and share a dark streak of humour that comes from the love of family and the communal understanding of knowing who is the enemy.”
“[This] first-time novelist reveals an unflinching eye and a formidable grasp of the mysteries of the human heart.”
“intelligent and touching—Livingston resists easy sentimentality at every turn.”
“Eilleen and Grace — from whose points of view the story is alternately told — are small fictional masterpieces.”
“Eilleen’s dual identity of loving mother and irresponsible drunk is part of the novel’s gritty joy... Going Down Swinging is brave and rigorous writing about family, a serio-comic antidote to the definition of mother as martyr, and a long look at what “the best interests of the child” might entail.”
“Livingston’s book is a humane, political look at the world of hard knocks…we discover there are no happy endings, just the possibility of fresh beginnings.”
“Billie Livingston vividly captures the heady romance of mother-daughter love, so strengthening in its unconditional acceptance and support, and so wretchedly debilitating in its blindness.”
“Livingston’s style is controlled...An excellent first novel.”
“It’s a gorgeous poignant little tale.”