Punching Bag
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The companion to Rex Ogleβs award-winning Free Lunch is a searing account of adolescence in a household torn by domestic violence.
Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdadβs anger. Hovering over Rexβs story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister.
Through it all, Rex threads moments of grace and humor that act as beacons of light in the darkness. Compulsively readable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told, Punching Bag is a remarkable memoir about one teenagerβs cycle of violence, blame, and attempts to forgive his parentsβand himself.
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Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award; Punching Bag, a NYPL Best Book; Abuela Donβt Forget Me, finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award; and Road Home. He lives in Los Angeles.
