All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir

Major Albert Green, called “Dad,” served in World War II and Korea. He was dark-haired, with one strip of white hair that Moore describes as looking like lightning. He was very competitive and a successful businessman. After retiring from the military, he ran the local theater and drive-in in the Green’s home town of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Later, he moved to Houston, Texas to manage their chain of AMC movie theaters.

Green began abusing his daughter Beth sexually when she was 11, causing her trauma that she couldn’t begin to resolve until she was in her thirties. He also cheated on his wife, causing her extreme emotional distress, then prevented the children’s access to her. He remarried after his wife’s death and was forgiven by Beth Moore on his deathbed.

Aletha Green, called “Mom,” had a contentious relationship with her husband. She loved her children and, eventually, her grandchildren fiercely and showed her love by feeding them and laughing with them. Her husband’s infidelity was devastating to her, and while she never left him, she would refuse to speak to him for long periods of time. When she died, the children decided to carve “Queen of Everything” on her grave.

Moore’s siblings included Sandra, Wayne, Gay, and Tony. Sandra, the oldest of the Green children, was 18 when the memoir begins. She was glamorous and well-behaved. She married at an early age and doesn’t have a large presence in Moore’s story.

Wayne was 14 at the start of the memoir. He looked like Paul McCartney and was musically inclined, playing the piano. He missed much of the family dysfunction because he was at college when it began. When his mother became ill, he left a job conducting musical shows in Vegas and moved into his parents’ home with his wife and toddler. They cared for his mother for nine months, until her death. It was Wayne who called his siblings with the news that Mom was dying.

Named Aletha Gay for her mother, Moore’s sister Gay was older by three years. She had pecan-brown hair, fair skin, and freckles. Gay was braver than Beth and was her role model in feminine techniques such as applying make-up. Gay was the one who called their father’s mistress and told her to stop seeing the father. The sisters’ close friendship continued into adulthood.

Tony was two years younger than Beth. The older children tried to shelter him from the family’s dysfunction during their years living in Arkansas. He eventually followed Beth to college and introduced her to her future husband, Keith Moore.

Minnie Rountree, called Nanny, was Aletha’s mother. Born in 1886, she was a large, “contrary” woman who enjoyed arguing with her daughter. She was a constant presence in the lives of the Green children, as she lived with her daughter from the time of Aletha’s marriage onward. While her deeply racist beliefs appalled the children, she was also a stable force in their lives when they needed one the most. She died when Moore was in high school.