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Lisa V. Proulx

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Weedmonkey: Mama, Mother, Whore Kindle Edition

by Lisa V. Proulx (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.9 2,071 ratings

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Growing up during the Depression and forced to live in coal mining camps throughout Appalachia, Virgie Hopkins is subjected to child molestation, the KKK, murder, homelessness, starvation, and ridicule for being the daughter of the town whore.

Virgie grows up hating her mother who was taken away when she was nine years old and while she was gone, she and her brother were put into foster care, starved, and abused.

When her mother returned, she did not know her husband or her children and Virgie could not understand why she had changed.

At 16, Virgie made the decision to leave Kentucky and the only life she had ever known after discovering her prostitute mother was having an affair with the young boy Virgie loved.

Filled with hatred, resentment, and shame for the woman she called Mom, it was not until her mother’s funeral, did she learn the horrible truth, the reason for her change, and the reason why she became the town whore, a weedmonkey.

A haunting true story…

From the author:
My mother began writing Weedmonkey when I was a little girl. In 2006, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given three months to live, passing on April 30. I was heartbroken not only because my mother was dying, but because her dream of writing this book was dying with her. On her deathbed, she asked me to finish writing it for her. I hope I've made her proud. ♥

WINNER: Reader's Choice Golden Book Award 2018
WINNER: Second Place Winner in Golden Book Award 2018
WINNER of Honorable Mention in Reader's Favorite 2017 and featured at the Miami Book Fair 2017!!!

Review by Sarah Rollins for Readers' Favorite: "Weedmonkey by Lisa V. Proulx is a moving memoir which tells the story of how a little girl called Virgie was brought into the world amidst the remnants of what was the old south, amongst wealth, judgement, poverty, and injustice. Virgie’s mother is considered a town whore, her father works in the mines, and the story continues with Virgie herself left to look after her brothers and sisters, moved from foster home to ﬂop houses, and exposed to situations that you would never dream a young girl (or anyone) should ever be forced to face.

Lisa V. Proulx writes with heart and soul as she tells Virgie’s story. Her writing style brings you into the story, and for some moments I almost forgot that this was a non-ﬁction book. Her words pulled you into Virgie’s plight and you felt the emotions of the young girl, her hatred for what life had dealt her, her disappointment for what she has missed in her youth, and yet her strength to go on, and become a diﬀerent person from the mother she knew and grew up with.

Weedmonkey is a true story which will make you smile and cry as you follow young Virgie, understand her background and her ability to rise above the life she was forced to live. A truly touching memoir, written with passion by the author who undertook this project after it was started by her own mother. A deﬁnite must-read for anyone who enjoys books of this era or non-ﬁction stories that demonstrate true strength."

Editorial Reviews

Review

4 StarsReviewed By Sarah Rollins for Readers' Favorite

"Weedmonkey by Lisa V. Proulx is a moving memoir which tells the story of how a little girl called Virgie was brought into the world amidst the remnants of what was the old south, amongst wealth, judgement, poverty, and injustice. Virgie's mother is considered a town whore, her father works in the mines, and the story continues with Virgie herself left to look after her brothers and sisters, moved from foster home to flop houses, and exposed to situations that you would never dream a young girl (or anyone) should ever be forced to face.

Lisa V. Proulx writes with heart and soul as she tells Virgie's story. Her writing style brings you into the story, and for some moments I almost forgot that this was a non-fiction book. Her words pulled you into Virgie's plight and you felt the emotions of the young girl, her hatred for what life had dealt her, her disappointment for what she has missed in her youth, and yet her strength to go on, and become a different person from the mother she knew and grew up with. Weedmonkey is a true story which will make you smile and cry as you follow young Virgie, understand her background and her ability to rise above the life she was forced to live. A truly touching memoir, written with passion by the author who undertook this project after it was started by her own mother. A definite must-read for anyone who enjoys books of this era or non-fiction stories that demonstrate true strength."

About the Author

Lisa V. Proulx

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00DYWG898
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 13, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 637 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 255 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #429,041 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,718 in Biographies & Memoirs of Women
- #4,406 in Memoirs (Kindle Store)
- #6,067 in Women's Biographies

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3.9 2,071 ratings

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Lisa V. Proulx

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Hi,

I am an award-winning and international bestselling author, an award-winning speaker and storyteller, an editor, and a publishing consultant with Indie Author Consulting - "Giving Indie Authors Roots So Their Books Can Grow!"

My presentation, "Unknown to Bestseller", was featured at the Dublin Writers Conference in Dublin, Ireland in June 2018 and I am a speaker and team member for Reader's Favorite Book Awards in Miami, Florida.

I am a laid back, Bohemian, 70s rocker chick who loves to write and spend my days on my Maryland farm with my family, my two dogs, and a variety of cool cats and wildlife.

As Lisa V. Proulx (my real name), I write horror, inspirational, and non-fiction, and as Veronica Moreau, I write sexy rock and roll romance.

I am a former belly dancer who loves to cook, bake, and work in my garden.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! ♥

https://www.lisavproulx.com/

www.indieauthorpromotions.com

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3.9 out of 5

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Amazon Customer

Great memoir, an amazing story of a little girl who didn't give up!

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2014

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I'm very glad I came across such a great memoir! It's been a long time since I've read something as engaging and compelling as Weedmonkey, I just couldn't put it down.
The plot describes a life and a mother-daughter relationship of a little girl Virgie and her mother, Maud, who was considered a town whore. First of all, you can't help but root for little Virgie, who basically had to take care of her little brothers and sisters while her mother was running around and her father was busy working at the coal mines. Constant lack of money, the growing alienation between the mother and her kids, moving from one town to another - all that could brake anybody, but not Virgie. Every single time she felt hurt or abused, she kept getting stronger and stronger inside and in spite of all the circumstances that seemed to be against her, she became a strong woman, very different from her own mother. Virgie learnt how to make a living, how to take care of herself and what she missed most of all as a child, how to become a great mother to her own kids.
The characters of the book are very real, the life of the small southern towns is described in the way that you basically feel yourself being there, watching all the events developing right in front of your eyes. Great job, Lisa! Definitely five stars, an awesome read!

12 people found this helpful

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Myrna G.

A "weedmonkey" apparently is a dirty animal that eats filth and behaves filthy--hence a human can be a weedmonkey too.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2017

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I just finished the book last night. The true story is very unusual but I guess for the time period for which it is written about-- it is not so strange. The time period is prewar 30s and stops apparently in the mid to late 1990s. The story opens with a funeral and the "Weedmonkey" is about to be buried. There was no definition for weedmonkey given by Lisa V. Proulx the author and daughter.

The story begins strangely with the marriage of Virgie's mother to an Indian man and their journey to start a new job in the country. This journey ends with the settling-in of Virgie's mother and father and then Virgie's birth. This part is startling! But....there again for the times it is not so strange that Virgie was born in a cabin. Her birth will startle and surprise you as she was born dead. Her birth reminded me of the birth of my pet, Betsy whose first born pup was born dead with a grey fleshy mask over its head. Being my first pet to give birth I had no idea that I should have removed the covering and most likely that pup would have lived.

This book review is hard to tell since there is so much of Virgie's life that is shocking. She struggled with hunger, homelessness, vulgar men who almost attacked her and yet she managed to live and survive. Her mother's way of surviving the poverty of her life was to sell herself for goods that were needed for surviving. The aloneness of that poor family and children was hard to think about. It was one challenge after another for Virgie to survive in a world that both her mother and father had provided. Her mother became locked into her life style and appetites and the father simply was surviving in his own primitive way. You simply cannot read the story with an attitude of blame. The times and place marked the hardships that Virgie's family had to endure. All along, I felt that Virgie was not aware that her mother and father simply was responding to the "lack" in their environment. Virgie and her brother and sisters were caught up in the web that the time and poverty and place of their life.

Virgie made good choices. She was able to see the ugliness that could have shaped her life. She tried to protect herself and her sister from the Uncle molesters that lurked all around her. She said she always ran. What choice did she have? You will have to read the read this book to understand Virgie's dilemma. All around her was torment and lack. She was always hungry and dirty and she made choices that looked like she was running away but that was the intelligent option open for a clear thinking young girl. Luckily, Virgie's story about her mother ended on a hopeful note. She saw that her mother was truly beautiful though she had died. It was like all the dirt and badness had not touched her mother's truly beautiful soul. I think Virgie had come to the peaceful acceptance of her mother's life and perhaps forgave her mother for making her the daughter of the town hore.

11 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Good book decently told

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2020

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Decent book kinda jumps around in the end but nonetheless this book is decent overall i enjoyed reading this book and thank the author for sharing this story im glad that Virgie was able to find out the TRUTH AND WAS ABLE TO GIVE HER CHILDREN A BETTER LIFE THAN SHE HAD... i only wish her father could have had a better relationship with his children. So again this book was not that bad only wish certain things were explained better.

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2016

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Virgie's Mom was a remnant of the plantation society of the antebellum South. Her father, grieving for his dead wife, lost what remained of his family's wealth, and distributed his children among relatives. Mom was expected to wait tables to earn her keep. On a starcrossed day, she met handsome, half-Cherokee Jesse. The marriage started out with a strike against it, the racist attitudes of people in Appalachia. It was exacerbated by Mom's promiscuity. When discovered by Jesse, she attempted to kill herself. A sojourn in a mental hospital followed. Whatever her treatment had been, she was cured only of her memory. If anything, her promiscuity worsened. Virgie lived a life in flophouses, foster care, and at the mercy of relatives, all the while playing mother to her younger siblings. It was a life of abject poverty, indifference and unconscionable adult cruelty and exploitation. We see Mom through her eyes but even so, the reader can only surmise how and why she was consistently irresponsible, even to the point that she contracted venereal diseases. Her willful neglect of her children which put them at great risk did not alter her expectations of assistance as her health failed. This is the story of a resourceful, courageous survivor conflicted by the image versus the reality of an unbalanced mother.

9 people found this helpful

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Francesca Zee

good, easy read

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2014

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I was attracted to this story because of the time period. My grandmother was born in 1912, so I thought this would remind me a bit of her and her incredible stories. The story was a great one, but I can tell that it wasn't written by the protagonist. The author is telling her mother's stories, so there is a bit of distance when she writes. There isn't too much emotion there. This is also a reflection of the time, most likely. People didn't dwell too much on anything back then. The only thing that truly bothered my about the story was the progression, there was never a moment leading up to a climax. It was just written as if nothing was more important than anything else. Also, the author would jump time periods, which irks me in general. It needs a bit of editing, but nothing major. It's still a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves memoirs.

6 people found this helpful

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Ann Marie

A must read!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2020

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Excellent book I really couldn't put it down. I was completely drawn in from the first page. Absolutely heartbreaking and brilliantly written. The author certainly did this story proud. It was like you were actually living Virgie's life with her. Definitely a 5 star rating.

Amazon Customer

Amazing

Reviewed in Canada on January 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

Read in one sitting, so interesting. A children's view that you don't normally experience. Makes you reconsider why many people are as they are

One person found this helpful

helen mclennan

nice easy good read

Reviewed in Canada on December 15, 2019

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I am the type of reader that gets bored so easy, but I really liked it very nice, smooth and interesting. Yes I really liked it

Stephanie Parker McKean

Heart Breaker, Heart Healer All in One Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

“Weedmonkey,” by Lisa V. (Virgie) Proulx breaks your heart, then puts it back together again with its amazing candor and the triumphant spirit that built a successful life rather than accepting excuses for failure.
Virgie was born dead on March 17, 1929. After that, life got worse.
Virgie’s Cherokee grandmother brought her back to life. Her parents took her to West Virginia where her father became a coal miner. Virgie’s first memory of her mom was a brutal beating at age four that left blood oozing from her legs. That abuse began a lifetime of hatred and resentment. One freezing day, Lisa was locked outside when the bakery man came. She lit papers from the trash can to keep warm. Her coat caught on fire. Neighbors wrapped her in a rug and rolled her on the ground to extinguish the flames. Wanting revenge, she told her father what had happened. That was the start of her mother’s repeated affairs, one of which produced a lover’s child who was later kidnapped. It was also the start of a downward spiral that included move after move, and her mother’s attempted suicide and return to the family from a mental hospital with no memory of who she was or who they were.
Virgie lived through the great depression and hid from the Ku Klux Klan. Her beloved Cherokee grandmother died while her mother was still in the mental hospital. She and her brother were taken to a “house of horrors” where they were never fed and sometimes stayed outside with the dog in the doghouse for warmth. When their mother came back to get them a year later, they didn’t recognize her.
Virgie wound up taking care of her younger siblings. That included protecting her sisters from rape. She once beat a child predator with a coal shovel. Another time, she and her sister hopped a train to escape a rapist – then didn’t have enough money for the return fare.
Life was savage in poverty-stricken Kentucky. Virgie’s 12-year-old school friend was forced into prostitution by her mother. When the little girl refused, she was tied down to the bed. A string of men raped her every morning before she left for school.
Virgie suffered unimaginable humiliation whenever she liked a boy. He invariably wound up in her mother’s bed.
After their parent’s divorce, the children entered a bitter, hopeless world where Virgie learned that the only way out was to run. Virgie ran from the hills where a dad hit his son in the head with a piece of stove wood, then buried him out back. She ran from the hills where a heartbroken husband fed his dead wife canned peaches because she had craved them during pregnancy. Virgie ran from the hills where it was claimed a shape-shifting woman had turned into a cow and was eating a neighbor’s garden. He threw an ax at the cow. The woman was found dead with one leg cut off and the neighbor’s ax on the floor by her bed. And she ran to protect herself from a man who repeatedly attempted to rape her – then to kill her when she refused.
Virgie’s mom became a “weedmonkey,” the town prostitute. Virgie became a nursing student, wife and mother.
After she married, Virgie got a job at the “Washington Times-Herald” with Jacqueline Bouvier. Bouvier’s interviews included Pat Nixon, Vice President Nixon and Senator John F Kennedy. She covered Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation before leaving the paper to marry JFK.
The daughter of the “weedmonkey” fought a long upward battle. There were still fights ahead, but she had made it out of the hills. She didn’t make excuses; she made a life.

Kate

interesting story

Reviewed in Canada on June 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

I liked the story, but the book was very poorly written, and at times contradictory. It was easy to envision the situation the writer spoke of, and despite the contradictions, I think she accurately relayed her mother's life.

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