Joan HicksBoone

In her memoir, The Best Girl, Joan HicksBoone takes readers through the experience of growing up in a family struggling with alcoholism, domestic violence, neglect, and other dysfunctions in suburbia St. Paul, Minnesota. The book opens with Joan’s first memory: a shocking episode of domestic violence that occurred when she was four years old. Throughout the book, readers will see and feel what Joan saw and felt as a toddler, young child, adolescent and young adult – and how, throughout all that happens, she holds out the hope that by being The Best Girl, her father will be healed and her mother will smile.
That her mother was a domestic abuse survivor against all odds is paramount to the story, but there is more here than her mother’s survivorship. The book takes into account the people and experiences that give Joan the ability to look outside of her environment and to consider that there are other ways to live. Joan finds unique ways to deal with the severe violence that overwhelms her father and the alcoholism that infects both her mom and dad.
Despite what she has witnessed, Joan is a survivor. She is able to look outside of her immediate environment and find the heroes that she so desperately needs. This book shows how Joan, her mother, and her siblings survived – but more importantly how Joan and her siblings stopped the cycle of generational alcoholism and domestic violence. The Best Girl provides hope for the many, many children, throughout the United States – throughout the world – who witness horrific scenes committed by the very people that are entrusted to provide them with safety, security and unconditional love.