Afterthought
A Family Story
Historical fiction book about the difficult life of a working-class woman in Wisconsin in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.
Afterthought: A Family Story focuses on the life of my grandmother, Lila Slaback, who grew up in a dysfunctional, working-class family in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in the 1930s. In her short adult life, she gave birth to seven children with at least four different men and died in 1958 at age thirty-six. She was a real person, but her family was not proud of her story. This book is my best attempt to recover it. This work of historical fiction can be read like a memoir. With extensive notes and resources, it can also be read as inspiration for researching and writing historical fiction, especially in the United States. As an educational text, it would be appropriate for courses on fashion history, American history, gender roles, family, poverty, healthcare, and generational trauma.
Front Matter
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Copyright and License
© 2025 Heather Akou
Afterthought: A Family Story by Heather Akou is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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Publisher
Indiana University Bloomington Libraries Publishing
1320 E. Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405
Cover Information
Cover Image: Photographer unknown; ca. 1937; © Heather Akou
Cover Design: Adam Mazel