Soundbite:

“My dad was an extremely irresponsible adult and had complete disregard for me not only as his daughter but also as a human being in general... I spent most of my life begging for approval from my father. I stamped a label on myself very early on, a label I felt my father handed to me. I was worthless and had no real value... I didn't know that God knew my name. I didn't think He could possibly love a girl like me and He definitely couldn't treasure me as His child” (Candice Curry, Th

Soundbite:

“My dad was an extremely irresponsible adult and had complete disregard for me not only as his daughter but also as a human being in general... I spent most of my life begging for approval from my father. I stamped a label on myself very early on, a label I felt my father handed to me. I was worthless and had no real value... I didn't know that God knew my name. I didn't think He could possibly love a girl like me and He definitely couldn't treasure me as His child” (Candice Curry, The Con Man’s Daughter: A Story of Lies, Desperation, and Finding God, Baker Books, 2017, pp. 13, 24-25).



Review:

I want to invite people to enter into the world of a young child who is totally dependent on her father for her sense of security and belonging. The problem is her father was a con man, always on the shady side of the law, often high on drugs and liquor, and seemingly oblivious to the needs of this little girl who would put her hand in his back pocket when they were in a crowd so she wouldn’t lose him. It’s a tragic story that is played out in countless households around the world, and it really opens one’s eyes to what life is like on the underside. The saving feature of this story quite literally is the transformation that comes to this little girl when she’s grown up and finds her true identity in Jesus Christ. Through that new sense of being treasured by God, her true Father, she is able to forgive her father for the way he warped her sense of self and took her into the midst of danger she didn’t even know enough to reject. If you want an engrossing true story for your summer reading, this would be it.

M.L. Codman-Wilson, Ph.D., 6/1/2017



Excerpts:

"Dad also started filling my purse with little blue pills. I believed he knew what was best for me and that somehow taking these pills would make my life better or easier to deal with...He convinced me that I needed the meds and that they would help, but, like everything else he touched, they made me sick and dependent” (Candice Curry, The Con Man’s Daughter: A Story of Lies, Desperation, and Finding God, Baker Books, 2017, pp. 60-61).



"On Sunday mornings, I would sneak in to church as much as anyone can with 3 babies and a 7 year old. And after dropping them off, I would tiptoe to the back of the worship center...I knew God was looking at me with disappointment… So I hid in the shadows and took a break from the world for one hour each Sunday morning without a single expectation of getting anything from it. But God doesn't watch a mother in despair show up in His house every Sunday without doing something about it” (p. 108).