Red star tattoo : my life as a girl revolutionary /

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Larsen, Sonja (Youth worker), author.
Imprint:Toronto : Random House Canada, 2016.
©2016
Description:263 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 21 cm
Language:English
Subject:
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10767212
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780345815279
0345815270
Notes:Issued also in electronic format.
Summary:"From hardscrabble Milwaukee to dreamy Hawaii, from turbulent Montreal to free-spirited California, Red Star Tattoo is Sonja Larsen's unforgettable memoir of a young life spent on the move. By the age of 16, Sonja joins a cult-like communist organization in Brooklyn in a spirit of idealism and hope--unaware of the dark nature of what awaits her. A small, skinny 8-year-old-girl holding a teddy bear stands by the side of a country road with a young man she barely knows. They're hitchhiking from a commune in Quebec to one in California. It is 1973 and somehow the girl's parents think this is a good idea. Sonja Larsen's is a childhood in which family members come and go and where radical politics take over her mother's life and her own. As a pregnant teen her mother had been thrown out of home in Milwaukee by her evangelical preacher father. Her aunt Suzie is gripped by schizophrenia, her behaviour so erratic she eventually loses custody of her daughter. And then there is her cousin Dana, shunted back and forth long-distance between her parents--Dana, whose own need to escape leads to unspeakable tragedy. Looking for a sense of family, searching to belong, to have your life mean something--this is what all these girls and young women have in common. As a teenager, Sonja finds herself embracing her mother's commitment to an organization known publicly as the National Labor Federation and privately as the Communist Party USA Provisional Wing. Over her three years embedded within the NLF's national headquarters in Brooklyn, Sonja becomes the youngest member of the organization's militia and part of its inner circle. She works sixteen-hour days and is not allowed to leave. She soon becomes a mistress of the Old Man, the organization's charismatic leader. As she and the other members count down the days until their American revolution is set to begin, Sonja's doubts about the cause and the Old Man become increasingly difficult to ignore. Red Star Tattoo explores the seductions and dangers of extremism and, in prose that is both poetic and unsentimental, asks what it takes to survive a childhood scarred by loss, abuse and the sometimes violent struggle for belonging."--
Other form:Larsen, Sonja (Sonja A.), author. Red star tattoo.

MARC

LEADER 00000cam a2200000 i 4500
001 10767212
003 ICU
005 20160510141621.1
008 150805t20162016oncac 000 0aeng
040 |a NLC  |b eng  |e rda  |c NLC  |d YDXCP  |d CDX  |d XFF  |d TOH  |d NhCcYBP 
019 |a 936357323 
020 |a 9780345815279  |q hardcover 
020 |a 0345815270  |q hardcover 
035 |a (OCoLC)916584011  |z (OCoLC)936357323 
043 |a n-us--- 
050 4 |a HX843.7.L37  |b A3 2016 
082 0 4 |a 335/.83092  |2 23 
100 1 |a Larsen, Sonja  |c (Youth worker),  |e author.  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2016009195  |1 http://viaf.org/viaf/137144647684955647005 
245 1 0 |a Red star tattoo :  |b my life as a girl revolutionary /  |c Sonja Larsen. 
264 1 |a Toronto :  |b Random House Canada,  |c 2016. 
264 4 |c ©2016 
300 |a 263 pages :  |b illustrations, portraits ;  |c 21 cm 
336 |a text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent  |0 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/contentTypes/txt 
337 |a unmediated  |b n  |2 rdamedia  |0 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/mediaTypes/n 
338 |a volume  |b nc  |2 rdacarrier  |0 http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/carriers/nc 
520 |a "From hardscrabble Milwaukee to dreamy Hawaii, from turbulent Montreal to free-spirited California, Red Star Tattoo is Sonja Larsen's unforgettable memoir of a young life spent on the move. By the age of 16, Sonja joins a cult-like communist organization in Brooklyn in a spirit of idealism and hope--unaware of the dark nature of what awaits her. A small, skinny 8-year-old-girl holding a teddy bear stands by the side of a country road with a young man she barely knows. They're hitchhiking from a commune in Quebec to one in California. It is 1973 and somehow the girl's parents think this is a good idea. Sonja Larsen's is a childhood in which family members come and go and where radical politics take over her mother's life and her own. As a pregnant teen her mother had been thrown out of home in Milwaukee by her evangelical preacher father. Her aunt Suzie is gripped by schizophrenia, her behaviour so erratic she eventually loses custody of her daughter. And then there is her cousin Dana, shunted back and forth long-distance between her parents--Dana, whose own need to escape leads to unspeakable tragedy. Looking for a sense of family, searching to belong, to have your life mean something--this is what all these girls and young women have in common. As a teenager, Sonja finds herself embracing her mother's commitment to an organization known publicly as the National Labor Federation and privately as the Communist Party USA Provisional Wing. Over her three years embedded within the NLF's national headquarters in Brooklyn, Sonja becomes the youngest member of the organization's militia and part of its inner circle. She works sixteen-hour days and is not allowed to leave. She soon becomes a mistress of the Old Man, the organization's charismatic leader. As she and the other members count down the days until their American revolution is set to begin, Sonja's doubts about the cause and the Old Man become increasingly difficult to ignore. Red Star Tattoo explores the seductions and dangers of extremism and, in prose that is both poetic and unsentimental, asks what it takes to survive a childhood scarred by loss, abuse and the sometimes violent struggle for belonging."--  |c Provided by publisher. 
530 |a Issued also in electronic format. 
600 1 0 |a Larsen, Sonja  |c (Youth worker)  |0 http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2016009195  |1 http://viaf.org/viaf/137144647684955647005 
650 0 |a Women revolutionaries  |z United States  |v Biography. 
650 0 |a Women communists  |z United States  |v Biography. 
650 0 |a Radicalism  |z United States. 
600 1 6 |a Larsen, Sonja  |q (Sonja A.)  |1 http://viaf.org/viaf/137144647684955647005 
650 6 |a Femmes révolutionnaires  |z États-Unis  |v Biographies. 
650 6 |a Femmes communistes  |z États-Unis  |v Biographies. 
650 6 |a Radicalisme  |z États-Unis. 
650 7 |a Radicalism.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01087015 
650 7 |a Women communists.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01177508 
650 7 |a Women revolutionaries.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01178470 
651 7 |a United States.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01204155 
655 7 |a Biographies.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01919896 
655 7 |a Biography.  |2 fast  |0 http://id.worldcat.org/fast/fst01423686 
776 1 |a Larsen, Sonja (Sonja A.), author.  |t Red star tattoo.  |w (CaOONL)2015905463X 
903 |a HeVa 
929 |a cat 
999 f f |i f53053f5-1d2c-5a9e-8779-4a60403d1da4  |s d2f4a4d7-4c39-571a-9cfe-eabf4371a627 
928 |t Library of Congress classification  |a HX843.7.L37 A3 2016  |l JRL  |c JRL-Gen  |i 8973419 
927 |t Library of Congress classification  |a HX843.7.L37 A3 2016  |l JRL  |c JRL-Gen  |e BOGU  |b 112701304  |i 9599604