I am the sister of the author and I am very upset that this book is being touted as truth. Had the book been marketed as fiction I would have no problem with it. Our life has been portrayed in an ugly and untrue light. I did not buy the book because other family members that are livid about the book had contacted me in regards to the things being said that were false. When you read it remember the old adage, Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear! There was absolutely no domestic violence against our mom in our house, EVER. My dad never ever touched my mom, drug her by her hair, broke her glasses, held a knife to her throat or threatened to kill her, none of that is true. We threw away more food than we ate, no one ever had to give up their food for anyone. REMEMBER we had chickens, pigs etc we butchered,(not by backdoor though) and my dad and others hunted so we had pheasant, deer, geese, ducks etc. We ate out almost weekly as a family. My dad never ever tipped our table over in anger or drunkeness. We never sat on the floor eating in fear. We were not afraid of my dad when he was drinking OR sober, because for one he was not ALLOWED to drink at home for ANY reason or occasion. I never even saw a beer in our fridge growing up. #2 When our dad did come home drunk he wasn't a mean drunk at all, just stupid, but we usually didn't even see him because he came home after the bars closed and we were in bed. My dad was actually more afraid of my mom when she got mad not the other way around. We were not poor. We had horses and our parents bought us our first cars when we turned 15. We had 6 aunts & uncles that didn't have kids so they also gave us most anything we wanted or needed. So had there been no money or no food they would have made sure we had anything we needed. Growing up we never missed a fair, circus or carnival. We went on family vacations, California, camping etc. Our christmas's, they were always huge, we always got the newest toys, one year Phil got a squirrel monkey. I don't recall ever wanting for anything as a kid. My parents did buy a house outside of the city limits so we could have animals and the house was small to begin with but they saw potential for improvements. We put on a huge addition, knocked out a wall to make us girls room bigger since we shared one. It was the 60s & 70s, houses did not have master baths and bedrooms. It was a great place to grow up. There was never any drinking not even beer, let alone fighting when we got together with "The Hillbillies", just extended family visiting the cemetaries where family was buried and eating, playing, catching up, just your basic good times. When Phil got older, I never saw Phil beat up ever, no bruises, no stitches, no arms in slings. I never heard of him being in the hospital or going to court. I m not denying what Phil said he did in the dark of night is true, because I wasn't with him. BUT, Our uncle was a cop & the other cops all knew us, so I doubt the cops beat up one of their own's family member. This book needs to be taken with a grain of salt. He did NOT HAVE to OVERCOME a HORRIBLE childhood. It was written by a master story teller but very little of it is true. To dispel all the untruths I would have to write my own book and I would include the real truth of our family, which was not idealistic & very few are, so not trying to leave that impression, just absolutely not what this book says it was.Read full review
Amazing for some reason those who don't give this author an outstanding review are either jealous, bitter, posting phony reviews or something. We R none of the above, We R mad as hell about the lies he is spouting. If someone were lying about your past, your homelife, your friends and family you by god would be trying to defend yourself also. Everyone thought OJ was a GREAT GUY, Scott Peterson was a GREAT GUY, how many times have you heard someone say, Wow, I'm shocked, he was a GREAT GUY! The truth was they really didn't know them only the facade they showed? You only know what Phil tells you. I have the RIGHT to say, NO WAY, NO HOW is his book TRUE. NOTHING in our home is as Phil has portrayed it. So when all that is lies the whole book is suspect. I never said it was idealistic, as none are. I haven't even disputed anything Phil said he did, I have doubts. He has an excuse and someone to blame for every rotten, unethical illegal thing he has done in his life. Phil was a bully, mean, sadistic, a phony and guess what his con jobs put our dad to shame ie this book, he put on a great front and some of the disgusting things he says he partook in sickens me to my soul. I knew he had some problems but did not know the extent of how ugly and mean he actually was, IF TRUE. I've never seen the inside of a cop car or jail, never had any arrests for anything, including a speeding ticket, I am an upstanding citizen that is law abiding and extremely caring of others and have never bullied, threatened or beaten anyone up. I grew up in the same home, in the same area, with the same parents. As far as the people of Norton from what I have looked into, appears the worst ones to have come out of there actually have only been Donald Moeller and Phil Hamman, so why knock the neighborhood & those who lived there, why tell lies to try to blame his unsavory character on someone else ALWAYS. Obviously he is the one with problems since I did not become an ugly, disgusting law breaking citizen that terrorized others. It had NOTHING TO DO with our home life, as I said, he has lied, fabricated, made crap up all to justify the person he became and it was always someone else's fault, he was taught by the adults or the best. NO, if what he is saying he did is true, he wanted to be that person, most of the people from that area, ME INCLUDED, didn't terrorize, threaten, beat others up, or run from the law. Tell the truth, say, I hung out and ran around with crappy law breaking characters because that was the type of person I was. Then there would be no problem with his book. As far as our uncle the police officer, the abuses he was devastated about when he learned of them, were not domestic violence against mom or us girls. YES, by all means,call his wife!Read full review
I am responding to the bitter sister as I had to do on another site. She's not an eBay user but created an account just to write this venom. I have read the book, know the author, and have talked to many, many people who lived in his former neighborhood who agree with him completely. So do many of his relatives. He does speak about his uncle helping him out. Everyone knows that a memoir doesn't include every single person who helped someone throughout their life. It's condensed information. Nobody would doubt at some point that they may have fixed up their house, but anyone from Sioux Falls knows that the Norton area was rooted in poverty. The description of the homes in Norton is extremely accurate. He even says in his book that 'some of the residents..' But when someone writes a book, people are interested in reading the interesting, unusual, dysfunctional things that occurred. Not everyday, boring things. Even if you go into the worst ghetto, some of the places will be nicer than others. That's just common sense. The author had nearly every person he wrote about in the book sign consent to tell the stories, and they signed off on the stories as being true. The sister has falsely stated on another 'review' that the photos are from the internet. That is absolutely not true nor is much else of what she says. The photos are of homes in the Norton area, his friends, his family, his teachers, team pictures, and an Olympic gold medalist. His friend who was shot and seriously wounded gave permission for the story, his friends who were arrested with him and were in brawls with him gave permission for their names to be used, people who formerly attended his junior high can attest to those stories being true, and most of the stories are about the author and his friends. And yes, abuse occurs behind closed doors. That's how abusers are able to continue. The author told me that when his uncle, who was a police officer, finally did find out about the abuse, he was devastated. His uncle's wife is alive and can confirm this. The author told me that he's had many cousins contact him, and they're fine with what he said. They realize he's able to laugh about the dysfunction that ALL families have. So, what is the sister disputing? 3 sentences from the book? There is proof of everything else, and these few nit-picky things have no bearing on the book at all. There would be no purpose in making them up.Look at the author's other sites. There are many people from his former neighborhood who confirm what the author writes. So what you have is a bitter sibling. The book is selling great. People love it. People are inspired by it. Teenagers who don't even like to read are reading the book and sharing it with friends because they enjoy it so much. His former PE teacher and wrestling coach, both still alive, endorse his story as true. I also know his sister has an axe to grind, and I wouldn't trust anything she says about the book.We know where the author ended up: he's been a successful teacher with a Master's degree who spends his days helping disadvantaged students to be successful in life. He has been a coach, a Stephen minister in his church, and has a successful business as well as a stable family and home. What have these people who are attacking the author accomplished in their lives to prove their character? What do they do for employment? How are their family relationships? Read the book. It's fantastic!Read full review
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