Going Against the Grain is an inspirational memoir of childhood abuse and redemption – of the ways individuals and institutions can help us transform ourselves.
Starting life as a middle child of an interracial marriage in 1934, author John Edwards Kyleshares his experiences of how a childhood filled with struggles and abuse led to a successful career in the United States Marine Corps, running his own engineering company and taking a stand for what is right.
Abandoned by his mother because of his father's abuse and alcoholism, he and his brothers spent their early years with their grandmother until she could no longer care for them. When he was 11, his father left him and his oldest brother to live alone in a tent with a kerosene lantern and a 22 caliber rifle to use to hunt for their dinner. For the next 7 years it was a nightmare not knowing when they would get their next meal.
His book, Going Against the Grain, not only chronicles his fights for what is right, but also the tolls doing so can take on a person and a marriage. Going Against the Grain is about childhood survival, and a lifelong determination to help those less fortunate that stemmed, probably, from starting out life as one of them.
