Summary

The Book of Hours - In the first of the three narrative lines explored in this memoir, the author describes the early days of her home life with her often-absent, sea-captain father and beautiful mother: “ … we were lucky and we were loved, which isn’t the same as happy, if you believe in such a thing” (1) She describes how her father (whom she refers to as the Captain) came from a family in which his father abused his mother until he (the Captain) made him stop; how she and her brother dealt with the Captain’s constant absence; and how she remembers her father best - when he was telling her stories, her favorite being that of Ferdinand the Bull, who refused to fight in the bull ring.

In this memoir’s second narrative line, the author considers the story of Ferdinand, and...