Blind Pony

Blind Pony is an account of Samantha Hart's life growing up in America in the early 1970s. It's the kind of book that has you constantly asking yourself, 'surely this isn't real, surely it's a work of fiction?'

Samantha has a troubled childhood - (initially named after the woman her Dad had an affair with) she is one of five sisters and her father is a drunk named Wild Bill who disappears from Sam's life in her early adolescent years. She lives with her large family and her grandparents on their farm - this is where she suffers the most horrendous abuse which takes place right in front of her mother's eyes.
Wild Bill is Sam's escape route to a better life and she leaves the farm to live with him. Sam's journey takes her places a teenager should never visit, she gambles, poses nude, drinks, and later succumbs to hard drugs.

The book is harrowing, sad, joyful, and happy, you'll definitely run a whole range of emotions reading it.
It is very well written and I was truly absorbed.

Blind Pony is Samantha Hart's story of her abusive childhood and her incredible adventures as a teenage runaway. Samantha was originally named Pammy Sue after her father's latest mistress when she was born, which is a hint as to quite how dysfunctional her family was, and after years of suffering the attentions of her grandfather,the denial and lack of love from her mother and the death of her beloved grandmother she leaves home at the age of 14. Her father,a charismatic man with a host of tall tales,has already left the family home. Also left behind was Princess, the pony her grandfather gave her who was blind in one eye while her sisters were given physically perfect ponies.

Lying about her age and often relying on the kindness of strangers and her intelligence Sam gets through school bur finds herself ,like many runaways, alone in the sleazy Hollywood of the early 1970's
From there her life is a roller-coaster ride of doing what she has to to survive, relationships with much older men purely to keep a roof over her head, parties with drugs on tap and flying around Europe trying to sell a portfolio of nude pictures to publishers of Men's magazines,all before the age of 18.
As she crashes through a life that seems to lift her up only for it to throw her to the floor again all she really wants is the love of her mother and answers to the question ,"why me?" as her abuse continues to play on her mind.
Samantha tells the story of her young life quite openly,the drugs,the sex,the ill-advised marriages until ending with her finding some kind of reconciliation, not least asking her grandfather why she got the "Blind Pony" of the title.
Samantha's book is hard-hitting and superbly written,she's obviously a very intelligent woman and ,hard as it must have been, leaves the reader in no doubt as to her feelings of abandonment ,isolation and even worthlessness because of the failings of others. By way of balance the kindness of strangers more than once helps her out of bad situations.

This is a great read and after finishing it I spent a couple of hours Googling Samantha, who went on to happiness in her personal life and a very successful in various creative industries, and others who feature in her story so it obviously left an impression.