The Pale-Faced Lie: A True Story

This story was one of the most engaging, compelling stories I’ve read in years. With vivid language and details, Crow successfully recounts an absolutely harrowing childhood- with grit and honesty. His is a story of heartache, guilt, redemption and forgiveness. It speaks to the human ability to overcome and survive. I won’t soon forget this one. Great read!

A PALE-FACED LIE is a compelling and captivating read. A page turner, it's shocking, inspirational, and unique. I couldn't put it down!

The book is well written. It kept me engaged. Thankfully, there is some type of redemption at the end. The author has an interesting and respectable endpoint, so to speak. I don’t wish to give any details regarding his adult life, the reader should be free to discover them for his/her self. While the book is somewhat compelling, I found it to be an emotionally difficult read. It also struck me that with each advancement in his life, it was wash, rinse, dry, repeat. Over. And over. It’s a dark and unsparing look into certain aspects of the human psyche and soul (if we humans do in fact possess such a thing). The most important adults in his life fail him and his siblings unfailingly. Narcissism runs rampant through these “parent” figures. Certainly there is no end of mental illness. On occasion, an adult steps forward to provide some type of decency and compassion, but these people don’t stick around for long. Add to the narrative all the ways that he and, specifically, his brother act out in order to try and deal with the physical and mental abuse and you end up with a very depressing book. There were definitely some elements that I could relate to, but the viciousness and cruelty from the father and the stepmother were just horrific. The mother was her own special type of effed-upedness. These people were human in physical form only. The stepmother is so evil and wretched, it’s almost too difficult to believe that some artistic license hasn’t been taken in presenting her. Though I am sure that the author is telling the truth and is being as accurate as possible. When one remembers the atrocities of Communist Russia or the macabre, inhuman horror that is mankind that was displayed by those of the Third Reich, it becomes apparent that such evil and nastiness resides in all people. It is, after all, people who think up such horrors and people who carry them out. Having written that, the book also highlights that we can choose. At any point in time, we are choosing. We choose our responses. We choose our actions. We choose to be complicit or to resist. We choose wether we perpetuate and participate in the violence and depravity or we choose to stand up to it and break from it, showing courage, compassion, kindness and love. When choosing the latter course, surprising and inspiring results can unfold. It’s a dark read. I don’t believe in angels and demons, but I do believe they walk amongst us. We have seen them. They belong to this realm. They are us. A representation of the duality of mankind. We all bear the seeds of good and evil within us. Which seeds will we choose to water and nourish?

OMG, wow, what can be said? This is an incredible book. I just came across it while casually surfing through Amazon. I bought the book and simply couldn’t put it down. It immediately sucked me in. The physical and emotional abuse this man went through is incredibly shocking! I don’t know how he survived it. But the book isn’t as depressing as it may sound, or I wouldn’t have continued reading it. It has its funny moments, and it does give hope to children who may have been abused. He goes into minute, fascinating details about his childhood that keep you captivated. I don’t know how he remembers it all. Just fascinating stories about life on the reservation, school, drunks, his many rebellious pranks, and packs of feral attacking dogs! One thing that bothers me is how he keeps running back to his crazy, sadistic father, continually, and choosing his dad over his poor mother. She is mentally ill, passive, and weak, but about one millionth as bad as his dad was. All she really wants is for her children to love her. He complains that she rehashes her old gripes her whole life, but my god, that is exactly what his DAD does his whole life, only much, much, much worse!!! She never beat him, forced him to abet crimes, threaten to kill him, or overpower him with gut-wrenching, unrelenting FEAR, either. He just seemed to really be pulled to his violent father no matter what his dad did, including humiliation, murder, dragging him into crimes, and threatening and damn near killing him. And yet he still kept going back, maintaining a relationship with his dad, but not so much his mother. I don’t understand. David Crow, can you shed more light on your thinking here? It would add great clarity that would help the reader understand your decisions more. Nevertheless, an awesome, gripping, and insightful book with hopeful messages. He finally escapes his tormented childhood and builds a good life for himself, and ultimately succeeds, thank goodness! I highly recommend this great, ultimately optimistic book!

Jaw dropping, moments in which I covered my mouth followed by a gasp and of course the tears I couldn’t hold back. Another human being I’m honored to have learned a bit about- yet felt like I learned so much in a matter of days. One of the authors I will retain in my brain along with many others I’ve learned about. By far this book has been the one that has kept tears running down my cheeks. So many moments in which I had to pause and gather my self in case my children popped in my room and saw me crying (I need more toilet paper by the way). This true story is filled with vivid details that give strong images of what the author endured throughout his childhood up to adulthood in the hands of his parents and environment. Epilogue from the author: “by my early fifties, I still hadn’t found any measure of peace- guilt and anxiety followed me everywhere” As I say, “your environment influences your outcome in life whether for good or bad. For some odd reason the memories we remember the most, are those that hurt us the most. We don’t forget and we won’t let go. But we learn to move forward with them, without allowing them to take over our daily life. We only know what we know, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it”. I do recommend this reading if you’re okay with hearing about abuse, violence and can handle unsettling information about someone’s life.

This is an exceptional story, it grips from the start and hooks you in completely on an emotional level. It drags you to the depths of despair, when you can’t believe that somebody grew up with a morale compass in this environment. It’s a triumph of how humanity is completely flawed and also remarkable, but simply this is just a great book.

Great story. Felt so sorry for the author and his siblings yet they all appear to have risen above their harsh childhoods ,through courage and perserverance , to live accomplished lives. the book is well written and, in my view deserves all of 5 stars.

Amazingly emotional, gripping story of a true bully wouldn't settle for anything less than what he wanted and even tried to make his son part of his evil plans..

A page turner! Truth is often stranger than fiction. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Very dry story with a lot of stretch and stress